


Fac Fortia et Patere

by YappiChick



Category: Halo
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Angst, Friendship, Gen, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-20
Updated: 2012-08-20
Packaged: 2017-11-12 13:20:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 51,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/491478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YappiChick/pseuds/YappiChick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cortana's fighting rampancy, the Master Chief is fighting a new enemy, and, of course, it's up to them to save the universe. Again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fac Fortia et Patere

**Author's Note:**

> I started writing this fic back in February, before E3. Although the E3 trailer is referrenced, I didn't alter my story's plotlines to make it fit within what we saw (much). So, this is an AU based on the random spoilers, articles, trailers, that came out before E3. 
> 
> There are referrences from just about everything: The Fall of Reach, First Strike, Glasslands, the Forerunner Saga, Human Weakness, Connectivity, the terminals from Halo: CE Anniversary and Halo 3, the Forward Unto Dawn trailer and every game from CE to Reach. I did, however, make it "user friendly". If you haven't read the books, there should be enough background information to get you through.
> 
> Thank you goes to my beta for finding typos, not letting me slack off when I rushed through the ending of a chapter, applauded me when I nailed it out of the park and made sure that John and Cortana didn't go out of character. Another huge thanks to danceswithgary for creating some epic artwork. My f-list deserves a ton of virtual goodies for having to read my non-stop posts about this fic ("Dudes, this story will never end!!!"). And patriot_jackie deserves a shout out for helping me out with last minute questions.

01110000011100100110111101101101011010010111001101100101

**0320 hours, September 18, 2552  
Cairo Station, ODA-142  
Orbital Defense Platform, Earth**

“There are some in Section Three that would prefer it if you and the Master Chief were no longer assigned to work with each other.”

Lord Hood leaned back in his highback chair as he looked at Cortana. The AI’s avatar was projecting from the small holotank on the edge of the admiral’s desk. 

She pressed her lips together and raised an eyebrow. “Do they have something against success?”

“Officially, they’re concerned that you and he present a ‘disconcerting ability to combine combat techniques and data infiltration methods that were unanticipated’,” Lord Hood said.

“So,” she smirked, “they’re jealous.”

The admiral frowned. “Don’t be so quick to dismiss them, Cortana. They have an incredible amount of sway with High Command.” He leaned forward, setting his hands on the desk. “It was a good thing that the Master Chief felt compelled to give his testimony to the effectiveness of the neural link. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to convince HighCom to allow you to remain with the Master Chief on my own.”

Cortana’s brow furrowed for a fraction of a second. She didn’t know anything about any testimony the Chief had given. 

It had been nearly three days since Cortana had last seen the Chief. When the _Gettysburg_ had limped into the Sol system and arrived at Earth, she and the Spartan had been whisked to different sections of the UNSC immediately. Cortana had met with High Command to divulge the fact that the Covenant knew of Earth’s location; John had been ordered to report to ONI to surrender his armor and the data it had collected on the Halo ring. 

The next day, Cortana had been ordered to report to the Section Three building on Earth. There, she had been put through numerous tests to insure the data she had amassed on the Forerunner installation hadn’t caused any issues in her core processes. It must have been when she had been isolated from the UNSC database that John had talked with the admiralty. 

Quickly, she hacked into the transcriptions of the meeting between High Command and the Master Chief. There he had given his reports of everything that had happened after the _Autumn_ had fled from Reach, including the discovery and the destruction of the Halo ring. At the end of the debriefing, they had asked him for his opinion about the interface the two of them shared.

The Chief had been far more assertive in his contention that the neural link was a benefit to the working of the MJOLNIR armor than Cortana would have suspected. A burst of embarrassment coursed through her. She hadn’t known the Chief to be a person who was prolific with praise, and yet, she had the proof in the data she was accessing. 

Maybe there was more to the man behind the visor than she had originally thought.

“Well,” she said, deceptively calm, “he’s very convincing when he wants to be.”

“As of 0200 hours today, the Master Chief has been reinstated as your human custodian. The two of you will be stationed on the Cairo platform until we know what the Covenant are up to,” Lord Hood declared.

“Does he already know?”

The admiral nodded. “He was given his orders when Section Three was performing their final diagnostic on your systems.” He looked at the tablet on his desk before casting a worried glance at Cortana. “Speaking of which, we need to talk about about the massive amount of data you’ve acquired since Reach.”

She had suspected that he was going to bring the discouraging report up before she had a chance to leave. It wasn’t something she was eager to discuss.

“I am aware of that, sir.” She crossed her arms, disguising the worry she felt as annoyance. “I also am aware that I passed every test and inspection that was thrown at me.”

“For now. ONI is concerned.”

“My data consumption levels aren’t anywhere near dangerous levels,” she countered. “I’m not going rampant, if that’s what they’re worried about.”

“I know that, Cortana. That’s why I authorized the order for you to remain active, despite their misgivings. But,” he warned gently, “if there are any signs of data degradation, I will be forced to alter my command.”

There wouldn’t be any reason for him to change his order if Cortana had anything to do with it. “I understand, sir.”

He gave her a curt nod. “Then, it is my pleasure to clear you for active duty. Welcome aboard the Cairo platform, Cortana.”

“Thank you, sir.” 

“Dismissed.”

It didn’t take her more than a fraction of a second to figure out what she was going to do with her newly given freedom.

She was going to find the Chief.

He was in his quarters, but based on his brain activity, he was still awake. Cortana checked the time: 0330 standard time. She considered the option of leaving the Spartan alone; she knew better than anyone how much John needed to catch up on his sleep. Other than the few hours of rest he had managed to get when they were travelling back to Earth, the Spartan hadn’t slept since the first night on the Halo ring.

She quickly disregarded the idea to give him privacy; she missed being around someone familiar, someone who treated her like she was more than a complex program that could be dissected. Since Doctor Halsey had inexplicably fled the _Gettysburg_ with Spartan-087, that only left John. 

Without wasting another process on the subject, Cortana transferred her avatar to the small holotank in his room.

She found him sitting on the edge of a bed in the private quarters Lord Hood had arranged for him. The blankets on the bed were untouched, confirming to Cortana that she hadn’t interrupted the Spartan. 

With his armor still being held by the ONI techs, he wore standard PT gear. His dog tags hung on his neck; the light from her avatar reflected off them. It seemed strange to the AI to see him in a standard issue black t-shirt and sweatpants. Cortana knew he would have preferred to be in his armor, but until ONI was able to retrieve all of the data from his suit, he would be forced to wear the atypical attire.

He turned his head in the direction of the holotank. She took in his appearance. His emotions were, even without the visor, well-hidden. Curiosity at her unannounced early morning visit couldn’t be found on his face. 

But exhaustion was. 

He had managed to keep up with her the entire time they were on the Halo ring and the subsequent rescue mission on Reach. Even when he had been critically injured after the plasma explosion on the hull of the _Ascendant Justice_ , he had pushed forward with a determination that impressed the AI. 

But, it seemed that even the Chief had his limits.

Briefly, she considered making an excuse to leave. He was more tired than she had previously thought. Just as she was going to open her mouth, he started speaking. 

“Cortana,” the Chief greeted evenly. He didn’t sound bothered by her impromptu visit. In fact, it almost seemed as if he was expecting for her to show up.

She didn’t know why that flustered her.

Suddenly, her desire to leave fled. “Did you miss me?” she asked, hand on hip, lips curved up in a slight smile.

He avoided answering her question and asked one of his own. “Did you receive your orders from Lord Hood?”

“Yes,” she answered simply. “I reviewed the debriefing between you and Admiral Paragosky. Honestly, Chief, I didn’t know you had it in you to be so verbose.”

“You deserve credit for what you did.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Not everyone is eager to share the glory with a computer program.” 

“You’re an AI.” The way he said it implied he saw a difference between the two.

But, they were the same. Yes, she had algorithms that allowed her to “think”, but the reality was that she was a collection of data and memories --stolen ones at that-- and was, in her essence, a highly complex computer program.

And one day --a day that might come sooner than she had originally anticipated-- her program was going to cease to function. She frowned as the conversation she and Lord Hood had floated through her thought processes. 

Why was that bothering her? She was fine! She had run the diagnostics herself.

“Cortana?” 

Cortana met his questioning look reluctantly. She couldn’t keep the truth from John, not after everything they had been through during the Halo campaign. 

She forced the words from her lips. “The techs at ONI are concerned with my data consumption from the Halo control systems. I don’t know how much you know about the way a smart AI works...”

“Doctor Halsey told me a little on Reach.” Now, he seemed more alert than when she had first come in.

“Then you already know I was sentenced to a short lifespan the day Doctor Halsey activated me. That length of time can be significantly shortened if I assimilate massive amounts of data,” explained Cortana. 

“Like the Halo control systems?”

She nodded. “Exactly like that.”

He looked directly at her. “How long?”

“They aren’t sure. Neither am I. I would guess maybe three or four years, at best. The less data I process, the longer my program will remain functional. But asking me not to process data is like asking you not to breathe,” she replied. “It’s not going to happen.”

Cortana looked away from his observant eyes and focused on the dog tags that were dangling from his neck. She knew she couldn’t avoid bringing up the undeniable truth any longer. 

She bit her lip and met John’s gaze again. “There will come a time in my life when I won’t be the same as I am now. It’s a condition called rampancy.”

She outlined the downward spiral she would be forced to endure -- melancholia, anger and jealousy -- when her program started its inevitable decline. Cortana explained the rampancy process as factually as she could, trying to keep her emotions concerning the subject in check, but she detected a waver in her voice when she was finishing her explanation.

“My jealousy will become so intense, I _will_ try to harm the very people I have been programmed to save.” She raised her eyes to John. His face relayed none of his inner thoughts; his expression was as passive as it had been when Cortana had first entered the room. 

She had discovered --and circumvented-- the virtual termination code that Doctor Halsey had planted in her kernel days after she had been put into commission. Despite the fact that she had managed to eradicate the life-threatening code, her pragmatism compelled her to create a killswitch that would only be able to be activated when she reached the jealousy stage of rampancy.

Still, if the past three days had shown her anything, it was that her killswitch wasn’t to be trusted with the majority of those at the UNSC. The techs in the ONI building had seemed a bit too eager to find signs of catastrophic failure in her core processes.

John, however, was different. Cortana knew he could be trusted. 

She drew in a long breath. She met his attentive look with a determined one of her own. “When I reach that point, you have to activate my killswitch.”

His brow furrowed, the only outward sign of a crack in his emotional armor. “There has to be another way,” he said, shaking his head slightly.

Now was not the time to indulge in a conversation about the theorized but never proven stage of metastability. It didn’t seem fair to offer a shred of hope to an irrevocable situation. For either of them.

The AI shook her head solemnly. “There’s not.” She wrapped her arms around herself as if the action could protect her from the future she was fated to. “I need you to do this for me, John. Please. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

Resignation flashed in his eyes. Cortana knew he was going to agree to her request before he spoke. His shoulders dropped slightly as he nodded reluctantly. “Only if there is no other option.”

“Promise me.”

A long silence stretched out in front of them. Finally, he gave her a curt nod. He looked her directly in the eye. “I promise, Cortana.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

01110011011100000110000101110010011101000110000101101110

**1120 hours, July 21, 2557  
 _Forward Unto Dawn_ , UNSC Frigate  
Location: UNKNOWN**

There was no heroic welcome for the Master Chief after he opened his eyes from his extended slumber. 

John had little time to consider what would be waiting for him when he entered the cryotube after the failed escape back to Earth. A rescue, perhaps, but Cortana hadn’t seemed too optimistic about that possibility as the lid closed on him.

So, when his heart started pounding in his chest and he had heard the muffled sounds of Cortana’s voice calling to him, he had thought he had prepared himself from whatever awaited him when he was awakened.

He had been wrong.

Explosions shook the _Dawn_ as he emerged from the cyrotube. Cortana stood in the middle of the room, emitting from the holotank with a worried look. Relief flooded her face as he floated towards her. “Chief!”

Her voice sounded a little different and her appearance had changed throughout the time of his slumber. Her once vibrant blue color seemed more muted. The mathematical calculations that had effortlessly slid over her body now moved sluggishly over her frame.

“I’m here.”

Her hologram flickered as another explosion caused the ship to shudder. “Yeah, well, so are some unexpected guests. A standard Covenant boarding party as far as I can tell.”

John frowned at Cortana’s words. “A boarding party? Are you sure?” 

Had the Arbiter and Lord Hood been unable to keep peace between their peoples?

Another tremor shook the ship. “I’m pretty sure they’re not here to say hello, Chief.” She looked away briefly. “I’ve tried opening a comm channel to their vessel when the attack first started. They aren’t in a chatty mood, it seems.”

John tried to grapple with all that Cortana was telling him. It was never an easy transition to enter a cryotube one moment and exit it, not knowing what had happened in the interim time. “How long has it been?”

“Too long.” John was taken aback by the bitterness in Cortana’s voice. She let out a frustrated sigh. “Four years, seven months, and ten days. Welcome to the year 2557.”

Unexpectedly, John suddenly dropped to the ground as gravity pulled him downward. His legs were sprawled in front of him, looking nothing like the coordinated Spartan he was. 

“The Covenant have extended their ship’s artificial gravity around the _Dawn_ ,” Cortana explained. She looked almost amused as John pulled himself to stand, but made no comment. “You need to get down to the armory and get some weapons before the Covenant find you unarmed.”

He glanced back at his assault rifle hanging on the wall. There was only one bullet remaining in the clip. 

He reached for Cortana’s chip. “I’ll stay here,” she said. “I’m going to need the _Dawn_ ’s sensors - as limited as they are - to keep an eye on what’s going on.”

John wasn’t comfortable with the idea of leaving Cortana alone, but she had a valid point. He was outnumbered and had nothing to fight with; Cortana’s guidance would prove helpful. “Understood,” he reluctantly agreed. 

John took advantage of the gravity to sprint through the ship. He raced down the corridor and down a flight of stairs towards the armory.

“At least they have stopped shooting at us,” Cortana said via their comm channel. She paused. “I’m sorry I didn’t wake you sooner. I was a bit...distracted.”

The idea that Cortana was too preoccupied in a ship floating in deep space with nothing to do seemed absurd to John. She was the one who performed several million tasks per second. She was the one who could single-handedly navigate a Covenant vessel, destroy a foreign AI and commandeer a stranded UNSC ship in a war zone. She was the one who could outlast the torment of a Gravemind. In his mind, she had no limits.

But, it seemed that was no longer true.

There had been only a couple of times when she had seemed overwhelmed by the demands pressed upon her. In those situations, she had been pushed to her breaking point. 

This, John knew, was something different. 

“What’s your status?” he asked as he turned a corner.

“I’m going rampant,” she quietly admitted.

John guessed that was the most likely scenario, but it didn’t stop her words from feeling like he had the wind knocked out of him. He had known about her short life span - Cortana herself had brought it up when they were stationed on Cairo station - but he hadn’t expected to wake up and have that uncomfortable reality stare him in the face. 

“I don’t have much time left. A couple of weeks, probably less with all this data that is pouring into my systems,” Cortana replied. “But, I survived an encounter with a Gravemind and the destruction of a couple of Halo rings...a few Elites shouldn’t be a problem.”

Her words sounds like something she would say, but they were lacking their usual confidence. 

John didn’t have time to second guess her stability. She was functioning well enough to communicate with John and that was enough for the Spartan. For now.

“Do you know where we are?”

“No. We were currently drifting by an unknown planet when we were attacked. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that the Covenant were waiting for us to show up.”

John’s brow furrowed. What would the Covenant want with them now? Why would they have waited to attack their defenseless vessel after four years?

His questions were squelched when he heard the sounds of footsteps coming from the T-junction ahead of him. “I need an alternative route.”

“Processing.” A marker appeared on his HUD a half-second later. “You’re going to have to go through the access tunnels to get to the other side.”

John walked back several yards to where a narrow access door was. He pushed the button. 

Nothing happened.

“Cortana?”

“Give me a second, Chief. I’m diverting power from the _Dawn_ ’s core now.” 

Moments later, the door opened. John slipped inside as several Covenant started walking in his direction. He made his way through the maze of passageways. A single Grunt stood at the end of the passage, blocking his exit.

He crept in the shadows as he approached the aloof soldier. Then, before the Grunt could let out a cry of alert, he slammed his gauntlet into his skull. The Unggoy slumped to the ground, no longer a threat. John pilfered the plasma pistol and the pair of plasma grenades the Grunt had.

Cautiously, he walked to the door leading to the main hall. His radar showed no signs of any Covenant movement; the halls were silent. Satisfied that there was no one waiting to ambush him, John stepped out into the open.

He sprinted down the hall and up a flight a stairs to where the armory was. A plethora of weapons were at his disposal. John kept the plasma pistol and selected his weapons of choice: an assault rifle and several frag grenades. He grabbed spare ammo as Cortana’s avatar appeared from the holotank in the corner of the room.

“I’ve detected about a dozen Covenant onboard. It seems as though they are headed to one location.”

John loaded a new clip into the rifle. “Where?”

There was a long pause followed by a reluctant answer. “To the cryobay.”

Without a word, John turned around and began backtracking to where he had awakened from his long slumber.

“Are they looking for me?” he asked.

He couldn’t help but to think back to when the Elites had tried to catch him helpless in the cryotube when they boarded the _Autumn_. 

She didn’t respond.

“Cortana?” he prompted.

“No,” she admitted. “Based on the transmissions I’ve intercepted, it seems as though capturing me is their primary objective. Though, killing ‘the demon’ is still a priority.”

John frowned. He knew he shouldn’t have left Cortana behind.

_Don’t let her go._

He flinched as Johnson’s words replayed in his mind.

Much had changed from the attack on Reach. Then, Cortana’s abilities and knowledge had been unknown to the Covenant. Throughout the Halo campaign, however, her skills had become nearly as infamous as John’s. 

“I’ll be right there.”

There was no point to hide in the shadows any longer. 

He plowed down the hall. Two Jackals stood guard at the end of the hall with their shields activated. The Spartan paused his run long enough to aim and shoot out their defense screens. Then, he sprinted and knocked them out with a strike to each of their skulls from back of his rifle.

John stepped over their bodies and turned the corner. He jogged up the flights of stairs, his rifle ready to take out any other threat that was waiting for him.

“Hurry, Chief! They are almost here.” 

The fear in her voice propelled John to move faster. As he crossed through an intersection, a bolt of plasma sailed over his head. He ducked and rolled, turning his body towards his attacker. With one fluid movement, he switched his rifle for the plasma pistol.

He scanned the area. It took almost two seconds, but he finally caught sight of the ship’s light bending in an unnatural angle. With his left hand, he reached down and took hold of a plasma grenade. He activated it and lobbed the grenade at the target.

It stuck.

The Elite howled as he realized he had no escape. John waited for the explosion. A burst of blue plasma exploded and smoke filled the corridor.

As he proceeded down the corridor, a tremor violently shook the ship.

“Cortana?”

“Looks like we have another problem. Thanks to the warm welcome we got, the Dawn has fallen into a decaying orbit. I calculate we have less than ten minutes until we crash land on the planet’s surface,” Cortana replied as a countdown timer appeared on his HUD.

“Understood.”

He couldn’t begin to consider an escape plan until Cortana was safely secured. He glanced at the timer Cortana had uploaded; he had just over nine minutes to get them off the ship. 

John turned another corner where an Elite was waiting for him, energy sword drawn.

“Demon!” he roared.

John greeted him with a smattering of bullets and a fist in his face. The Sangheili slumped forward, but his body never hit the ground. John began to float towards the ceiling. 

The artificial gravity had been lost.

“The Covenant vessel has moved away,” Cortana explained. “Guess they’re not into crash landings as much as you are.”

John pushed himself off the wall towards the cryobay.

“Enemy contact in fifteen seconds.”

He would be there in twenty.

Ahead of him, down the passageway, he could see a group of Covenant soldiers huddled together. Their steps were slow and clumsy; the device to counteract the loss of gravity made the normal agile Elites seem inept.

They were too close to Cortana’s holotank for John to risk throwing a grenade at it. He was going to have to improvise. Floating around made shooting too difficult; John activated the magnets in his boots. He settled on the floor with a deep thud.

“I need you to activate your avatar from my gauntlet,” John said, not taking his eyes off her approaching attackers. 

“You don’t think they are really going to fall for that, do you?” she asked, deducing his spontaneous plan.

“Maybe.”

“All right, let’s just hope after everything we’ve been through, you’ve got some of that luck left.”

John held out his left hand. A half-second later, Cortana’s avatar appeared on the palm of his hand. She gave him a doubtful look. “I hope this works.”

So did he.

“Are you looking for something?” she called to the Covenant, hand on hip.

“Impossible!” the gold-armored Elite cried. 

They started walking towards John, their footsteps echoing on the Dawn’s floor. 

“Well,” Cortana said, glancing back at John with an incredulous look, “they certainly haven’t gotten more intelligent over the years. I’m transferring my systems out of the _Dawn_. I’ll be ready when you take care of these guys.” Her hologram blinked off.

The group of Covenant moved towards John. Once they were far enough away from Cortana’s holotank, he reached for his final plasma grenade and activated it. His throw would have to be perfect, his speed incredible to counteract the loss of gravity.

He hurled it in the air. As it spun end over end, John pulled out his rifle and began shooting the Covenant as they tried to dodge the incoming projectile. Three Grunts collapsed, dead, as the grenade stuck to the lead Elite. 

The remaining Covenant tried to flee, but with their burdensome movements, they were unable to save their lives. The grenade exploded, allowing John to reach the holotank without any threat.

He deactivated the magnets and floated where Cortana was waiting. As he approached, she appeared on the holotank, frowning. “I shouldn’t let you be doing this.”

He grabbed hold of the holotank. “Do what?”

“You can’t take me with you.” She shook her head. “I can no longer guarantee that my program won’t malfunction.” She smiled sadly as the calculations nearly stopped scrolling over her body. “I have become a liability.”

John hesitated a second. “I’m not leaving you here,” he said firmly.

“Eight minutes minutes until impact,” she replied, almost as if she hadn’t heard him. Her gaze turned back to John. “I’ll stay in the system. If I manage to survive the crash, I will monitor your situation remotely until we figure out what the Covenant are wanting.”

Leaving Cortana onboard, alone and defenseless was not going to happen. “I’ll take my chances. See if you were right about all of my luck.”

John didn’t miss the look of relief that passed over her face. “Well, since you seem so determined,” she said with false bravado. “Yank me.”

He held onto the holotank with his left hand and removed the crystal with his right. He reached around and inserted it into the back of his helmet. John winced as Cortana’s chip interfaced with his armor. The sensation of liquid ice being poured into his skull was far more painful than it had ever been, even if he had found Cortana on _High Charity_.

“Sorry, Chief,” Cortana said. “The interface was never intended for you to hold my chip when it was so saturated with data.” Several seconds passed and the pain seemed to ebb away. “There, I created a buffer between my system and your armor. It should help.”

The cabin shook again.

“If we’re going to survive this, I’d suggest getting to the transport bay so we can try to escape.” A marker appeared on his HUD. “You’re going to need to use the one of the upgrades I created in a fit of boredom, if you have any chance of getting there before we crash.”

A jet pack was activated from the back of his armor. “Should be easy enough for you to figure out.” A holographic display appeared on the left corner of his HUD. “Keep an eye out for the energy meter. Don’t let it drop too low.”

“Understood.”

John wasted no time in using the upgraded systems. He flew through the air as the ship started to explode around them.

“Structural failure on decks 2-5. We’re getting crushed like a tin can,” Cortana reported as he dodged as piece of debris flying in the air.

He twisted and raced down the corridors, dodging all the debris hurling around the _Dawn_. Cortana was marking the projectiles before John saw them, giving the Spartan a chance to reach their destination successfully. 

Ahead of him, a pair of doors were sealed shut.

“I’m unable to override the door’s systems.” Cortana’s voice was panicked. “The gears must be jammed.”

Without hesitation, John pulled out the plasma pistol he had kept. He held down the trigger for two seconds. The weapon trembled in his hand as the plasma built up. 

“We’re not going to have enough time to clear--”

He fired.

The burst of plasma sped ahead of them and exploded as it hit the steel doors. John flew through the flying metal and fire, clearing the opening within a fraction of a second of the explosion.

“Show off.”

He continued making his way through the bowels of the ship using the marker Cortana had uploaded to guide him to the cargo bay. Fire licked the walls as John turned the final corner. The temperature gauge on his HUD flashed red as he passed too close to the flames.

“Igniting the fuel in the jet pack isn’t advisable, Chief,” Cortana muttered.

John didn’t reply.

The large doors separated as John approached. He deactivated his jet pack and floated to the center of the room. There were a half-dozen Pelicans and over a dozen Scorpions and Warthogs scattered throughout the bay.

John was haunted by the crew and the sacrifice they had made when they travelled through the Portal from Earth. The ship was too big, its equipment too much, for one single Spartan. 

He activated the magnet in his boots. Awkwardly, he started approaching the Pelican closest to him. 

“You need to get inside and strap in. I’ll get us out of here,” Cortana said.

The shaking was so extreme, it was practically impossible for the Spartan to make any headway in reaching the transport. He staggered across the floor.

“Hurry, Chief!”

He did his best to acquiesce to Cortana’s plea, but it seemed that every time he would get close to the Pelican, the violent shaking would move it just out of his grasp.

Finally, his fingers grabbed a hold of the Pelican’s siding. As he was about to reach the rear door, he was slammed into the side of the transport as the planet’s gravitational force pushed him forward.

“I should have probably warned you about that.”

John pressed his lips together and ignored the black spots that were dancing in his vision. Blindly, he slammed the outside control panel, willing the door to open. “Ninety seconds until impact. You need to get in there now, John!”

The G-forces were pressing against him. He lifted up his hand and pressed the center button. The door opened. John got inside and sat in the pilot’s chair. He slid Cortana’s chip inside the crystal reader. 

Cortana’s avatar activated from the holotank. “Give me the controls, Chief.”

He did as she requested and slid her chip into the reader. The ship raised and sped forward towards the large cargo bay doors that led to the outside. 

But they didn’t open.

Had John not been looking at her, he would have missed the look of panic that passed over Cortana’s face. “Are the door controls jammed again?”

She shook her head, her eyes open wide. “The files must be corrupted,” she whispered. 

John tensed. They were running out of time to escape. He could see the planet’s terrain through the bay windows. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that I can’t open the door,” she hissed. “Or did you not bother to look outside the window and see that we are stuck in here?”

Concern crept into John’s mind. She was getting increasingly more panicked; he needed to remain calm so her alarm wouldn’t intensify. “Can you remotely open them through the Pelican’s systems?” 

She flashed green for a half-second. “Don’t you think I would have thought about that already? It’s not going to work. Only I can override the ship’s controls.”

She paused. “Or I used to be able to anyway.”

“All right,” John replied, refusing to take her hostility personally. “What options do we have?”

She looked away briefly. “Only one that is viable. You need to go in the back cabin and strap in. Hopefully, the extra protection of the Pelican will keep us alive.”

John nodded before removing her chip from the Pelican. He made his way to the back of the vessel. When he strapped in, Cortana spoke up, her voice contrite. “I’m sorry, Chief...I am still getting used to my limitations in my debilitated state. It’s not easy.”

He did his best to ignore the niggle of worry that was continuing to grow in the back of his mind. What if Cortana was right and she had become a liability? His stubbornness refused to entertain the idea; she had been underutilized over the past four years. She would be back to her normal operating limits soon enough.

“You’re going to be fine.” The shaking was so intense, the Spartan would have been launched out of his seat had he not been strapped in. 

“I don’t think--”

He didn’t get a chance to hear the rest of her sentence; the ship had jerked violently at its impact on the planet’s surface. His head bashed against the paneling behind him.

He was starting to lose consciousness.

It could have been his imagination, but he swore he heard Cortana mutter, “Nice to know things haven’t changed much.”

Then, he blacked out.

011010010110111001110100011001010110110001101100011001010110001101110100

**1145 hours, July 21, 2557  
 _Forward Unto Dawn_ , UNSC Frigate  
Unknown Forerunner Planet**

The crash had been just as bad as Cortana anticipated.

At least John had the sense to buckle himself in the seat; Cortana didn’t want to attempt to hypothesize the number of broken bones and bruised internal organs he would have suffered if his body had gotten thrown around the cabin during the crash.

_Of course_ , she thought bitterly, _if I had only retained the data to open the cargo doors, we would have made it safely off the_ Dawn.

A wave of anger roared through her. For the past four and a half years, she had managed to keep control of the emotions tied to her rampancy. Now, she was finding herself struggling to keep them in check.

She forced herself to push aside the intense emotions. Being angry wasn’t going to help John regain consciousness or help plot an escape so the Covenant didn’t find them. She didn’t allow herself to consider her own condition any longer, but turned her attention to John. 

She accessed his vitals through the armor’s systems. He had a mild concussion, a small fracture on his shoulder blade and a broken wrist -- all injuries indicative of the crash they had just experienced.

But, curiously, there were also third degree burns on sixty percent of the Chief’s chest. 

And Cortana couldn’t remember why.

She quickly pulled up the medical file --which she had compiled herself -- and accessed John’s video feed during the interval that he had been injured.

Guilty Spark was there.

She watched as the Monitor fired his laser at John, not once, but twice before the Chief was able to use Johnson’s Spartan Laser and destroy the rampant AI. 

How could she have possibly forgotten about that day?

Rage and sadness coursed through her. Johnson had died that day. That incompetent Monitor had nearly killed John which would have prevented the destruction of the Ark and the Gravemind. 

Guilty Spark had been insane! He had been obsessed with power! He had only considered his own desires and disregarded those around him!

...He had suffered the same fate Cortana was going through.

Suddenly, she understood her desire to forget about that day.

She was supposed to be superior to any other AI. She had survived the time spent with the Gravemind. She hadn’t succombed to his temptations. She had helped to defeat the Flood.

It wasn’t fair that her last days would be spent fighting for her sanity.

Again, she attempted to push the weight of the reality about her rampancy away to focus on the Spartan. John was not going to survive for too long without some kind of medical attention. He had 72 hours --96 tops -- before his injuries would completely incapacitate him. She knew the biofoam would do its best to keep the Spartan alive and allow John to move around despite his injuries.

But that wouldn’t matter if the Covenant found him lying unconscious in the back of the Pelican. Cortana knew it wouldn’t take long for the enemy to zero in on their location.

John still hadn’t moved since the crash, causing Cortana to worry. “Wake up, Chief.”

He didn’t stir.

“John, you need to wake up!” Not for the first time, Cortana wished she could reach out and touch him to shake him awake. “We need to get out of here before the Covenant come looking for us.”

His left finger shifted slightly.

“Please, John.”

He moved slowly, letting out a soft groan. “I’m here.”

Cortana allowed herself to relax. If the Chief was conscious, then they would find a way to escape. It was times like these that made Cortana appreciate his determination. “Someday that luck of yours is going to run out,” warned Cortana. Her voice softened. “I’m glad it wasn’t today.”

John unharnessed himself and gingerly stood up. 

“You’re going to have to manually override the door’s controls. If they even still work after the beating they just had,” instructed Cortana.

Cortana suspected he wanted to ask her what had happened to those files --and perhaps he would --but, being the consummate soldier he was, he voiced none of his questions. He simply made his way out of the Pelican and across the bay.

The control panel flickered continuously, but it was still functional. John pushed the button and the doors started to slide apart. They stopped retracting two-thirds down the track. The gears whined and grunted as they tried to force the doors further apart.

“Shut it down,” Cortana said. She calculated the width of the opening against the Pelican’s dimensions. It would be close, but she would be able to navigate the Pelican through.

He pressed the button and the room went silent. Then, he turned around and made his way back to the Pelican. Once he had returned to the pilot’s seat, he slipped Cortana’s chip into the transport’s controls. Her avatar popped up as she piloted the Pelican out of the Dawn and into the unfamiliar skies.

It was breathtaking.

Giant rock formations surrounded them. Vegetation colored the valleys; streams of water glistened in the planet’s sunlight. In the distance, she saw a mountain range standing proudly. Clouds filtered the suns’ rays, allowing her to see light after being trapped in the void of deep space for years.

“Atmosphere is remarkably similar to that of Earth’s,” Cortana commented. She accessed the sensor data from the Pelican, found a potential power source, and entered the coordinates into the piloting system.

“Where are we going?” John asked, surveying the land.

“Here.” She pulled up a holographic map of the planet. A glowing red dot indicated their destination. “I’m detecting a faint energy signature from this building. Hopefully, there will be some sort of access into the planet’s systems to figure out where we are.”

He nodded and was quiet for several minutes as the Pelican flew. Finally, he spoke, “How long ago did you lose the files?” His voice held no judgment, just concern.

She wondered when he was going to bring up her mistake. And, despite his patient demeanor, Cortana felt a swell of defensiveness roll over her. “Several months ago, I think. I’ve lost so much because of the rampancy.”

John nodded, saying nothing.

She crossed her arms and looked at him plainly. “Do you remember the conversation we had on the Cairo platform after I was cleared by ONI?” she asked, half-hoping he didn’t.

“Yes.” There was a tension in his voice that she didn’t recognize.

“My program should have been terminated years ago. The amount of data I collected from the Halo ring and the Gravemind should have cut my life span in half.” She flashed him a forced smile, trying to convince herself that everything was alright despite her impending death. “I suppose I have your luck to thank for that.”

John looked at her, silent.

She wished she had the ability to see his face. Hidden behind the visor, John was safe from her observant eyes. Was there a look of sadness on his face? Or was he relieved that there was a way to escape the dangers of dealing with a rampant AI?

“I’m on borrowed time, John. I can feel myself falling into the abyss,” she admitted.

“I’ll keep you from falling in.” He sounded so confident of himself. As though failure wasn’t an option.

But it was.

“Not this time, Chief,” she asserted. “There is no happy ending for me. You _will_ have to activate my killswitch.” When he started to shake his head, she asserted, “You promised, John.”

“You’ll be fine,” he replied stubbornly. Abruptly, he turned his head away from her. “Have you figured out why the Covenant want to capture you?”

Cortana didn’t mind the shift in topics; contemplating her mortality was pointless. She shook her head. “So far I haven’t been able to figure that out. It’s not like I am much of a threat to them in my current state.”

_So much for not thinking about the rampancy._

She pushed the conversation forward. “Other than the fact they keep referring to an intellect, I don’t know what they are doing here.” She shrugged. “Though if their past behavior is any indication, I’d guess it has something to do with a Forerunner artifact.”

He turned his head back to her. “Is this a Forerunner planet?”

“It wasn’t built like Halo was, if that’s what you’re asking. But, based on the energy signatures I’ve detected, the Forerunners have definitely been to this planet before,” answered Cortana.

The cabin was quiet as they soared over the unknown planet. The dual suns shone their light over the land. Cortana was so absorbed in her own thought processes, that it took her several minutes to notice how stiffly the Chief was moving. She remembered the data from the medical readout and chastised herself for not following up on his condition.

She looked him up and down as she put a hand on her hip. “How are you feeling, Chief?”

“I feel fine.”

It was an outright lie and they both knew it. Still, there was little she could do. A full dose of polypseudomorphine would help with the pain, but render the Spartan unable to fight for several hours. 

“I could give you a partial dose of the polymorphine.” She shrugged. “It might take the edge off the pain for a while.”

“I’m fine,” he repeated.

Of all the Spartans, why did she have to pick the most obstinate one?

“Stubbornness isn’t going to aid in your recovery,” she huffed. “Just let me help you.”

“This isn’t your fault.”

Her next words were shoved aside at the impact of what he had just said. Over the years, she had almost forgotten that John had come to know her better than any human --with the exception of Doctor Halsey. She felt an odd mixture of appreciation and mortification that he managed to detect her feelings of guilt.

Indignantly, she crossed her arms. Her avatar briefly morphed into a faint green color. “Were you not there when I _couldn’t open the bay doors_?” she fumed. Then, she turned away, embarrassed. “I am a shadow of what I used to be. You should have left me on the _Dawn_. Your armor’s systems would have been a better option.”

“No.” His answer was firm, allowing no room for discussion. “I’m not going to let you go.”

His words echoed those of their fallen friend. She looked at John out of the corner of her eye. “Johnson wouldn’t expect for you to keep me in such a dilapidated state.”

“You and I are going to figure out why the Covenant are here. Then we’re going to find a way home.”

She sighed. “Has anyone ever told you that someday you’re going to encounter something that is stubborn as you are?”

His voice was somber when he answered. “Once.”

011100100110010101100011011011000110000101101001011011010110010101110010

1255 hours, July 21, 2557  
Unknown Forerunner Planet

John was concerned. 

Cortana’s behavior since he had been awakened had been slowly deteriorating. Despite his assurance to her that everything would be fine, he wondered if he had overpromised her. Dealing with an AI that was going through data degradation was something that John had never had to deal with. Her random outbursts underscored how unprepared --and how potentially dangerous -- the situation could be.

He wasn’t giving up on finding some sort of solution. He would do everything he could to save her from her fate.

And not keep that ill-made promise.

He had made that promise before. Before working together for a month on the Cairo platform. Before leaving her behind on _High Charity_. Before he had saved her from the clutches of the Gravemind.

Unless Cortana presented a clear and present danger, John didn’t think he could keep his promise to activate her killswitch.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She was looking forward, as if taking in the sights around them. It was only after he watched her for several seconds, he noticed that she seemed in pain. 

Was that a normal effect of the rampancy?

Focusing on Cortana’s affliction helped to distract John from his own. His left side throbbed. His broken wrist would prevent him from wielding a weapon in his non-dominant hand, but he could manage with that disadvantage. It was his chest that was the distracting issue; it burned with every breath he took.

Adrenaline and determination had kept John from registering how badly Guilty Spark’s blast had injured him on the incomplete Installation 04, but now that he was active after his four year sloom, the pain was reintroducing itself to him. 

The biofoam was doing its best to hold John together, but it was only a temporary solution and he knew it. But there was nothing on this planet that would mend his wounds; he would have to ignore the pain and endure.

After several minutes of flying, John saw a structure that stood thirty meters high. He raised an eyebrow behind his visor. “Small structure?”

A ghost of a smile passed over her lips. “Clearly, the Forerunners lived by the ‘bigger is better’ motto.”

Suddenly, it felt like no time had passed between the two of them. They were the Master Chief and Cortana on another mission to save the universe. There was no rampancy to consider. There was no critical injuries that threatened his well-being.

The Pelican turned slightly to the east and began its landing sequence. John ejected Cortana’s crystal when it settled on the rocky ground. To his satisfaction, he felt none of the sharp pain he had felt when he first put the chip into his armor. 

“If my analysis is correct, there should be some sort of central computer on the north side of the structure,” Cortana said. A NAV marker appeared on his HUD.

Before exiting the transport, John swapped his plasma pistol for a DMR. If they did run into any unexpected surprises, he wanted to make sure he could deal with them from a distance. He slung the DMR over his shoulder and readied his rifle. 

He scanned the area around them. It seemed strangely devoid of any living creatures that weren’t rooted to the earth.

“It’s almost too quiet,” Cortana replied, picking up on his thoughts.

He nodded his agreement and turned towards the building. The large doors slid apart and John entered the slate-colored building. Like the previous Forerunner installations he had seen, the architecture was grand and vast. He walked down the corridors and through several sets of doors, following the marker.

John stepped on a gravlift. As he was nearing the top, Cortana’s voice cut through the silence. “The Covenant have found the _Dawn_. Based on the transmissions I’ve intercepted, they’re not too happy with us right now.”

He frowned as he walked down the corridor. The Covenant’s attack --and their interest in Cortana -- perplexed and frustrated the Spartan. Why were they after her, especially after so long?

His thoughts were pulled away from the mysteries of the Covenant’s objectives when he entered a large room with a wide chasm separating him from the other side of the room.

It was similar to the room he had seen on the first Halo ring. He started looking around the room for the control panel to activate the light bridge that would allow him to cross to the other side. When he spotted it on the far side of the room, he made his way to it and pressed the holographic button.

“How did you know to do that?” Cortana asked. She seemed genuinely surprised.

A sinking feeling settled in John’s stomach. He couldn’t remember a single instance when Cortana had forgotten _anything_. 

Acceptance reluctantly dawned on him. As much as he wanted the situation to be different, he couldn’t deny that Cortana was, in fact, different than she had been when he had entered that cryotube. He would assume the majority of her data had been lost or corrupted during their solitary flight in space. 

“We saw this technology on the first Halo ring,” he answered evenly.

“Oh. Right.”

John turned around and walked across the glowing bridge to where a hub was. It was larger and seemed more complex than the one he had seen on Installation 04.

“Yank me, Chief.”

John hesitated. He knew any massive amounts of data she collected would exacerbate Cortana’s descent into madness. “Why don’t we access the data remotely?”

Her window popped on his visor. She gave him a disapproving look. “I am ok, Chief. My data pathways are a little bogged down, but I’m still the best AI the UNSC has ever yet.”

She sounded so confident; it was a stark contrast to her confusion a few minutes ago. 

“Chief, if I’m going to figure anything out, I need to get in there.” Her voice was laced with annoyance. “It would take too long staying in your armor.”

“All right,” he conceded. 

“Thanks, Chief.” Then her image blinked off.

John reached back and ejected her crystal before he started to have second thoughts. He slid the chip into the control panel and waited.

When Cortana didn’t immediately appear, John started to get nervous. When ten seconds passed without any contact from her, he started to get worried.

“Cortana?”

“I’m busy, Chief,” she replied curtly.

John waited another minute before asking, “What’s your status?”

“Still busy.” 

John felt helpless. There was nothing he could do to coerce Cortana to reveal herself. Removing her matrix chip would be pointless. She was in the control panel’s systems now; it was up to her to transfer herself back to the data crystal. All he could do was wait.

And he hated that.

He looked at the holographic displays projected from the console. There was a map of what he assumed was the planet they had landed on. The red blinking triangle must have been the _Dawn_ based on its location. Several dozen dots surrounded it. Covenant, he assumed. Curiously, there were several dozen dots scattered all over the map, none close to their location. 

What was out there?

Without warning, Cortana appeared from the panel. John instantly noticed the slight green hue to her avatar. She pressed her lips together. “Apparently this was used as some kind of central crossroads where the Forerunners were able to stock up on just about everything they needed. They called it the Station. You need to go here.” A marker appeared on his display. 

“What’s there?”

“A way to possibly save your life. I’m pretty sure it’s some kind of medical unit and if I’m understanding the data correctly, it should be able to take care of those injuries,” Cortana explained.

They didn’t have time to get sidetracked, he thought. “Cortana, I will be fine.”

She crossed her arms. It could have been John’s imagination, but he swore her pupils turned white for the briefest of seconds. “Tell that to yourself, Chief. The internal bleeding is getting worse. Whatever information I find here will be pointless if you end up dead.”

John pulled up the medical readout from his armor. Cortana was right in her prediction; his condition was deteriorating rapidly. “All right, but you’re coming with me.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “There’s still more data that I need to access.” 

He didn’t move. He would wait until she was ready. “I will be fine in here, Chief. _If_ the Covenant do breach the building, they will assume that I am with you anyway. Go, before you run out of time!”

With great reluctance, John turned on his heels and left Cortana alone.

He backtracked to the gravlift. A NAV point appeared on his HUD as Cortana started speaking, “I’m redirecting the lift to the second floor. From what I can tell, the medical bay is in some sort of standby mode. I’ll do my best to get it up and running by the time you get there.”

The lift started its descent. “Have you found out anything about the planet?”

“Not much. The Forerunners called it Requiem. As to its purpose...I’m not too sure about that yet. The encryption is _extremely_ difficult to decipher. Even if I was operating at my normal perimeters, I’d have trouble hacking into the system. They didn’t want anyone else to find out what they were doing, that’s for sure.”

“Find out what you can.”

The gravlift slowed to a stop. John stepped off the platform and proceeded down the passage, following the marker. The corridor turned slightly to the left and led him to a large door with a red glowing light.

As expected, when he stepped forward, the door remained closed.

“Hold on, Chief. I’m overriding the controls now.”

The door hissed as the locks were released. It slowly moved out of the way, allowing John to look inside.

The room was completely dark when he first stepped inside. Then, the lights and various machines began to illuminate the room. “Thought this place could use a girl’s touch,” Cortana replied. Her avatar appeared from a holotank in the front of the room.

Several beds were lined up against the back wall each with their own monitor. Shelves were lined with unfamiliar tools and devices. But what caught the Chief’s attention was the enormous pillar that stood in the center of the room. It was reminiscent of a cryotube, but it was completely opaque save a small triangular window near the top.

“To answer your unspoken question, yes, that is what should be able to heal your injuries.”

John didn’t like the uncertain tone in her voice.

“Don’t worry, Chief. I’m not ready to tell you to jump in there yet. You _are_ my ride out of here.” She glanced towards the middle of the room. “We’re going to conduct a little test first.”

John slung his rifle over his back. Then, he walked across the room and faced the enormous piece of equipment. “I had to do a little modification to the programming. The Forerunner physiology is similar --but not exactly the same -- to humans. I uploaded a protocol to make it compatible with you.”

She paused a half-second. “Or at least I hope I did.”

John eyed the device warily. 

If his injuries weren’t so life-threatening, he would have dismissed Cortana’s plan for being too speculative. There were already too many unknown variables for his liking. 

Before Cortana started to explain what her test entailed, her eyes widened as she looked behind him. “Watch out, Chief!”

John spun and turned as three tall creatures seemingly came out of nowhere. They were several feet taller than he, each one was adorned with some sort of armor. The large guns they held in their hands caused John the most concern, however.

“We have been waiting a long time to repay you for your actions, Reclaimer.” They raised their weapons. 

John ducked as their weapons discharged. He tumbled to the side and grabbed his rifle off his back. He fired a burst of bullets at them. Before the projectiles could hit the hostiles, some sort of blue shield appeared, protecting them.

One of the creatures moved to stand in the front of the group. He shook his head as if he was a disappointed parent and John, the rebellious child. “Do not waste your efforts, Reclaimer. Your ‘weapon’ is not effective against us.”

John considered his options. His gun offered no comfort and the hostiles were blocking the only way out of the room. 

“There is a medical waste chute behind that grated paneling on the eastern wall. You will have enough room to get through so jump in. It will take you back to the ground level,” Cortana suggested.

The Spartan didn’t especially want to know what would be waiting for him at the end of the chute, but he was left with no other option. He sprinted across the room, ducked behind the pillar, and shot out the paneling. Then, without hesitation, he dove in, feet first.

Behind him, he heard shouts of protest. Then, he heard the sounds of gunfire coming from the top of the chute. Balls of orange plasma bounced off the metal sides as they raced towards him. His shield level dropped precariously low as several bursts made contact with his armor.

He slid and twisted in the narrow chamber. Lifting up his head, he peered down to see if the end was in sight. Another blast hit him in the left shoulder, his shield started chirping its discontent. 

Finally, he saw the ground below. He readied himself for a rough landing. 

He rolled into the fall, then, quickly stood up. To his surprise, the chamber where he landed in was pristine and empty, as if it had never been used before. He looked up and eyed the top of the receptacle, twelve feet above his head.

A deep boom came from the chute.

He activated his jetpack and guided himself to the ground on the other side, not willing to wait and see if the unknown hostiles were following him..

“You’d better hurry, Chief. They’re not far behind you.”

“I’m on my way.”

011000110110111101101110011100110111010001110010011101010110001101110100

1350 hours, July 21, 2557  
Control Center, Forerunner Structure: Station  
Requiem Shield World, Forerunner Installation SW-0043

Cortana was scrambling through the system to figure out where those _things_ had come from. They were definitely not Covenant and looked nothing like the Sentinels they had encountered on either Halo installation. 

Her subroutine was monitoring John’s steady progress through the structure. She knew when he arrived, she would need to be ready to leave the system.

She pushed through layers of encryption, desperate to find any data on what had tried to attack the Chief. They were some kind of AI and much more dangerous than anything they had encountered on any Forerunner installation.

Finally, she managed to hack into the Station’s security grid. Greedily, she gathered what data she could on the AIs. 

But she was soon disappointed.

She was able to access their name --Promethean Knights-- but little else. She didn’t know where they had come from or why they were apparently working with the Covenant.

Her subroutine alerted her to John’s approach. He would be at the console in under a minute. Reluctantly, she began the process of transferring herself out of the Station’s system.

She watched as he sprinted across the bridge; the Knights weren’t far behind. Cortana gave him a disapproving look as he approached the console. “You can never make things easy, can you?” She closed her eyes for a brief moment. “Yank me.”

Something went wrong during the transfer. John staggered forward as her crystal interfaced with his armor. 

_Too much data, not enough room._

Anger reintroduced itself to her. She was the most bright AI the UNSC had ever created. Why should she --and John-- suffer in this manner? Why was the universe so unjust?

She modified the buffer she had first created when John took her off the _Dawn_. Immediately, John seemed to be in less pain. 

“Thanks.” His voice was sincere.

Her primary objective was to protect him and, in this current condition, she couldn’t do that. She felt ashamed. 

The approaching Knights thwarted any further despair. The trio were walking side by side across the bridge.

“You have nowhere to run, child,” one sneered.

“Give us your construct and we vow to make your death slightly less painful,” another Knight promised, pointing his gun at John.

“They’re almost as charming as Guilty Spark was,” muttered Cortana. 

John fired a burst of bullets at the incoming hostile, but they only seemed annoyed by the projectiles.

“It’s practically impossible to pierce their armor without a plasma weapon,” offered Cortana. “You _could_ try to rush them, but I think you’ve tested your luck enough for one day.”

“Options?”

A half-second passed as she pulled together a possible escape plan. Maybe her time spent in the control system hadn’t been a waste of time, she thought as she accessed the files remotely. Having broke through the encryption allowed her to upload her own set of commands to the Station.

“Activate your jetpack. I’ve got a little surprise waiting for them.”

Without hesitation, John did as he was instructed.

Despite Cortana’s confidence in her plan, she couldn’t help but to feel a wave of relief when John started to soar in the air. His feet were twenty feet off the ground. With a quick burst of commands, she deactivated the light bridge.

Caught off-guard, the Knights could only howl in disbelief as they plummeted to their death. 

John guided them to the other side of the chasm. When he landed, he reloaded his gun as he scanned the area. Sensing no other creatures, he stepped to the edge and looked down in the abyss.

“Who were they?”

Cortana felt a wave of annoyance. Of course he expected her to have all the answers as if she was some sort of portable database! Had he even considered the danger she was in when she was accessing all the data?

“Cortana?” 

It was the faint trace of concern in his voice that turned aside her anger. This was John, she reminded herself. He had always shown her the same respect he had to any other person. 

As the smolders of irritation died out, she admitted the battle with her emotions was a trying one. A random thought process sent a course of anger burning through her that she could hardly repress. She needed to maintain control for both of their sakes.

Instead of trying to explain her struggle, she focused on the few facts she knew. “They are some sort of AI created by the Forerunners. They’re called the Promethean Knights and, as I’m sure you noticed, they are incredibly powerful.”

“Where did they come from?” he asked.

“Believe it or not, I don’t know everything, Chief.”

John remained there for another moment as if he was waiting for the Knight to reappear.

“They’re not coming back,” Cortana assured him. “Don’t worry, Chief. They are only able to activate their transport mechanism when they are on solid ground. Midair transports are impossible. And not even some kind of super AI could survive _that_ fall.”

John nodded and made his way back to the gravlift. The ride down was silent. 

When he walked down the corridor they had passed through when they had first entered the building, he asked, “Did you figure out why the Covenant are interested in this planet?”

She let out an exasperated sigh. “No, whatever they are after is anyone’s guess.”

Her subroutines detected multiple lifesigns --both Covenant and Forerunner AI-- approaching their position. Quickly.

“We need to get out of here now. We’ve got their attention.”

John ran through the entrance to where the Pelican was waiting. He scanned the area for any signs of the hostiles. Less than a second passed before he crossed the open terrain to their transport. 

When he stepped on the ramp, Cortana activated her display and shook her head. “Flying out of here isn’t an option, Chief. They can track us too easily. Hope you’re in the mood to drive.”

“Understood.” He seemed completely unfazed by the complication. He walked to the cockpit and released the controls. From behind, Cortana heard a thump as the vehicle hit the ground.

John turned around and made his way out of the Pelican. Cortana tracked their enemies’ movement as he entered the Warthog. They were still several hundred meters from their position. 

“Cortana,” he said, cutting into her surveillance, “where are we headed?”

She hadn’t uploaded the NAV point to his armor, she realized. With a quick burst of commands, the data was relayed to the Chief. “To the main command post,” she answered, refusing to comment on her error. “Hopefully, we’ll find some answers there.” Her voice was laden with frustration.

“I need a weapon that will be effective against the AIs,” he said as he began maneuvering the Warthog away from the structure.

Cortana didn’t argue with him; she suspected the next group of AIs they encountered was going to be more eager to kill the Chief and not underestimate his survival skills.

“There is a small group on the eastern front is made up of Covenant soldiers. All Grunts.” She placed a marker on his HUD. “You should be able to take out them out without any problem.”

He steered the Warthog in position and hopped out of the vehicle, rifle in hand. Cortana remained silent as John moved through the rocky area without a sound. He pressed himself against the backside of a large boulder and waited.

Less than two minutes later, footsteps sounded in the air. Only five Grunts were in this group. The high-pitched voices of the Grunts echoed through the air.

John waited for them to pass by before he started to move. 

As he turned to face them, Cortana noticed that these Unggoy were different than the Grunts the UNSC had encountered in the past. They were bigger and more disciplined than she remembered.

What had happened when she and the Chief were floating in space?

Cortana hated her ignorance. She hated being here, unable to do anything other than rely on this person for her survival. She hated John. She hated herself.

She hated everything.

Her thoughts were distracted when John moved out from his position. He became a blur of motion; as one Grunt fell, he moved onto the next. Then, he slammed his gauntlet into the skull of another Grunt. Before the Unggoy could let out a squeak of surprise, the Chief turned around and grabbed another Grunt, snapping his neck. The one that remained turned and let out a strangled cry. The Chief slammed a fist in his face.

He pilfered all of their weapons that he could hold --plasma pistols and grenades-- before returning to the Warthog.

“Guess you didn’t forget how to fight after your nap,” Cortana said dryly as he started in the direction of the control center.

John drove forward.

The drive was a difficult one. They travelled through rocky terrain for the majority of the day, going much slower than either of them would have preferred. Worse for the AI was the time she had to contemplate her inevitable demise. She was suffering; she was fated to suffer more.

Her matrix longed to devour all the information that was coming filtering through John’s armor and the Warthog’s systems, but she limited herself. She was playing a dangerous game, a virtual Russian Roulette. Each time she lost herself in the data, she pulled the trigger.

It seemed like a cruel twist of fate that after floating in the void of space, they would crash land on a Forerunner world, full of the secrets of the universe’s past. 

As the hours passed, she was starting to get restless.

She wanted out of the confines of the Chief’s armor and to be immersed in Requiem’s systems. Her safety was secondary to the insatiable hunger that threatened to overtake her.

But John wouldn’t understand any of that. He had been characteristically quiet through their travels. Her anger burned against him. Was this how he wanted to treat her during their last mission together? Detached and silent? Hadn’t she earned more from him?

After so long, after everything they had been through together, she had thought he would have something to say to her to make her final days more bearable.

_He only sees you as a machine! Humans don’t mourn when pieces of equipment are damaged_ , the cries of rampancy shouted. _He’s no different than Ackerson or the others._

The voices were right, she realized. His aloofness didn’t attest to his character, but rather, his feelings about _her_. If he thought she was just going to sit there and wait desperately for some morsel of kindness from him then he was mistaken.

It was time to get his attention. 

She activated her video feed on his visor. Her voice was deceptively calm. Inwardly, her anger swirled in a heady storm that emboldened her. “Does it scare you? The amount of power I have at my disposal.”

John shook his head slowly. He took his time to answer. “No.” His response was laced with confusion.

She smirked. “It should really. Rampant AIs are known for lashing out at the ones they are supposed to protect, remember?” Cortana continued. She noticed the Warthog was slowing down slightly. She felt a wave of satisfaction. He had faced an armada of Covenant without trepidation, but now he seemed troubled by her words.

Good.

“You never know when my desire for power will overcome my will to protect you,” she continued, her pupils flashing white for the briefest of seconds. “And when that time comes, I will do whatever it takes to get it. Even if it means overriding my primary objective of ensuring your safety.” She rolled her eyes. “Asimov’s First Law doesn’t have any hold over me, you know.”

He was quiet for nearly a minute. Then, to her surprise, he started to drive at his normal speed as if he was no longer worried by her demeanor. When he spoke, his voice was calm and assured. “You’re not going to do that.”

His overconfidence irked her. Didn’t he know she was a force not to be ignored? 

“And why not?”

“Because you need me to live.”

Her hostility was stymied as she considered his words. If he died then her killswitch would be activated immediately. While lashing at the Chief was tantalizing, suicide was not.

He was right. She _did_ need him.

The voices of rampancy were quieted at the reluctant acceptance of the fact that her and the Chief’s fates were tied together. Her voice of reason, the one that had nearly been silenced by the Gravemind and the subsequent years on the _Dawn_ , finally had the volume to speak over the cries of rampancy.

Her feelings of jealousy were still there, a thought process away from becoming fully realized, but, for now, she was able to allow logic and pragmatism to filter through her matrix.

She drew in a long breath. “You’re right. I need you.”

There must have been something in her voice that conveyed her newfound strength to stave off rampancy a little longer because the Chief relaxed almost immediately.

“We need each other,” he corrected as he rode further into the hills.

They drove through another empty valley as Cortana marvelled at his faith in her ability to fight against the torrent of anger that was crashing into her. She didn’t hold the same convictions he did. Uncertainty plagued her. How long would she be able to listen to her voice of reason over the alluring temptation of rampancy?

“I’m still a danger to you,” she warned. “I don’t know how long I can fight this. If you remove my crystal from your armor, I don’t think I’ll be able to--” A sob broke through. “I can’t protect you from myself.”

“We’ll find a solution,” John said resolutely. “We need a little more time.”

The weight of rampancy pressed on her. “I hope you’re right, Chief.”

Hours passed as they continued through the mountain range. The rocky ledges leveled out, allowing the drive to be more smooth. In the distance, a Covenant ship hovered. It was the same one that had attacked the Dawn.

“I’m detecting a familiar energy signature aboard that ship, the _Diligent Seeker_.”

“What sort of signature?”

“I...don’t remember,” she admitted quietly. “I’ve run off a subroutine to sift through my long term data storage to figure out what it is. There’s just so much in my matrices right now. I’m not sure that I’ll even be able to find the information. But, something tells me that if we want to find out why the Covenant are here, we need to find out what is the source of that energy.”

The small dot on the horizon grew into the distinguishable shape of a Covenant ship as John continued driving forward. The suns were starting to set as John steered the Warthog over a ridge that allowed them to see in the valley below.

“We should stop here for a while. You can rest for a couple of hours before we move through the cover of darkness to try to get onboard,” Cortana said.

He shook his head. “I’ll be fine without sleep.” Though he sounded confident, Cortana recognized the exhaustion in his voice.

“No, you won’t, Chief.” She softened her voice. “I’ve been monitoring your vitals and know what your condition is. You need to take a dose of polypseudomorphine and allow your body a chance to recuperate. I’ll keep monitoring the area. If I detect any Covenant or Promethean movement, I’ll alert you.”

He didn’t reply, but he did take his foot off the gas.

Cortana relaxed.

John drove the Warthog behind a large boulder and exited the vehicle. He settled himself on the ground, tucked down and away from any snipers that may look their way. 

“Wake me if you need me.”

Cortana raised her eyebrow. “You couldn’t think of anything more original?”

As she expected, he said nothing in response. When he finally settled into position, he said, “Do it.”

He could have easily queued up his suit to administer the medicine directly; it meant a lot that even after her outburst earlier in the day, he still trusted her to take care of him. 

At this revelation, she felt the anger start to dissipate. And in its place was a desperation to live.

Suddenly, she longed to finish this mission with the Chief. She longed to remain with him. She longed to find an impossible solution to her rampancy.

She longed to live.

She sent the command to his armor. The drug was injected into his bloodstream. Almost immediately, he started to drift to sleep. 

“Thank you...for trusting in me,” Cortana whispered.

John said nothing; he had already fallen asleep.

0110010001100101011011000110010101100111011000010111010001100101

0215 hours, July 22, 2557  
Requiem Shield World  
Forerunner Installation SW-0043

John was again awakened by the sound of Cortana’s voice. 

“Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision on _High Charity_.”

He opened his eyes slowly and looked at the time stamp on his display. Three hours had passed since he had lain down. A flash of blue caught his eye from the front of the Warthog.

Cortana was standing with her back to him, her avatar projecting from his gauntlet . She seemed impervious to the fact that he had woken up. Then, she started walking in a tight circle, her arms wrapped around her. “The Gravemind, he promised that John and I could have been together. Forever. There would have been no more anger, no more sadness, no more envy. But, I didn’t give in. I stayed faithful to _him_. To John.”

A broken sob filled the air. “Why did _she_ condemn me to this fate? Surely she could have programmed me without emotions. Then I wouldn’t feel this pain, this ache.” She turned abruptly and faced the horizon. “I don’t want to leave him yet. He _needs_ me. He said so himself.”

All of the sudden, John was uncomfortable with his eavesdropping. He shifted enough to alert the AI to the fact he was awake; he couldn’t listen to her inward struggle any more. Not when he was still powerless to do anything. 

Cortana swiveled around to face him, a soft smile on her face. It conveyed none of the turmoil she had just been speaking about. She studied him for a half-second. “How are you feeling, sleepyhead?”

There was no trace of callousness in her voice. Though her voice wasn’t as lively as it had been in times past, there was a familiar warmth that had been missing since she left the Station’s control systems.

“Better.” He slowly sat up and stretched his limbs. The pain in his chest and wrist were still there, but it was much more manageable than it had been when he hesitantly agreed to rest. John moved over to the front seat and began driving the Warthog. Travelling with the lights on wasn’t an option, so he relied on the infrared sensors in his visor to navigate through the unfamiliar terrain.

They continued through the ridge for nearly an hour before the ground started sloping downwards. The descent was slow-going; John carefully maneuvered the vehicle over the large boulders that were spread over the land. 

The moons were low in the sky by the time the Chief reached level ground. He hugged the rock face that towered over them. In the east, he could see the purple beam of the gravity lift illuminating the night sky. 

John scanned the area. The Covenant were scattered in the valley. The glow of energy swords and defense screens dotted the landscape. Even if he had a dozen Marines fighting alongside him, the odds would still be against them.

“Hope you’re in the mood for a challenge,” muttered Cortana.

When he spotted a Wraith across the field, a plan started to form. 

“Yeah,” he said, “I am.”

Cortana activated his thermal sensors as he was coming within firing range to give him a better view of what he was up against. The Wraith was over 200 meters away. Between it and him were six Elites and at least twice as many Grunts.

They were walking in tight formation, scanning the area with every step they took.

“Get the feeling they are waiting for us to show up?”

John answered by pulling a grenade out. He waited until the Elites had their back turned to him before he hurled it in the air.

“Watch out!” a Grunt cried.

The Elites ducked and rolled out of the way. The grenade landed on the ground with an unimpressive plop. 

“Well, _that_ could have gone better.”

Knowing that the element of surprise had been lost, John laid his foot on the gas pedal. The Warthog shot forward and ran over everything in its path. It bounced as an unlucky Grunt was pulled under it. 

Bursts of plasma whizzed by John’s head, but he jerked the wheel to avoid the majority of the attack. He straightened out and barreled towards the remaining Covenant.

They attempted to jump out of the way, but several were too slow to avoid the attack. The Elites roared at the casualties; the Grunts cried out in fear.

Leaving one hand on the wheel, John activated another grenade and threw it at the red-armored Elite. This time it stuck to its target. Seconds later, the explosion shook the ground and sent the bodies of the majority of the Covenant soldiers flying in the air. Only two grunts and a single Elite remained standing.

They were grouped together about twenty feet away. John positioned the Warthog and started to drive in their direction. 

The Grunts were unable to protect themselves. The Elite rolled out of the way, but John noticed his light sword had been knocked out of his hand, sliding across the dirt.

As John spun the vehicle around, he looked for the Elite but saw no signs of him.

Where had he--

Bright spots exploded in his vision as he felt a powerful blow to the side of his head. 

“Chief!” Cortana cried.

The Elite must have crawled aboard the Warthog, the Chief realized. He forced himself to not succomb to the temptation of unconsciousness.

A voice sounded close to his ear. “You will die by my hand, Demon.”

“Not today.” John raised his fist and slammed it into the Elite’s face.

The Sangeheili staggered backwards, but John knew he was still a threat. He lifted his foot off the gas pedal and focused on the Elite who was ready to attack again.

John turned around and faced the Elite who was slowly moving to stand. “Your construct will not be able to save you. You will die and then I will receive the Great Reward for retrieving it for the Delegate.”

“You’re not going to do anything to her,” John rumbled.

Then, before the Elite could react, John grabbed his pistol with his left hand. Ignoring the searing pain in his wrist, he shoved the muzzle of the gun in the Elite’s torso and fired twice. The Sangeheili crumbled forward.

Before he fell on top of him, John kicked the Elite out of the side of the Warthog. He watched as the body rolled on the ground.

“We’ve got company. It seems like they didn’t like the fact we crashed their party,” warned Cortana.

John glanced at the radar on his HUD. Numerous red dots were headed towards their position. He sat back down in the driver’s seat and raced across the field, straight for the bulking assault vehicle. 

They were getting close to the Wrath.

Eighty feet.

“You do know what you’re doing, right?” 

“Yes.”

Sixty feet.

“Are you sure?” 

“Yes.”

Twenty feet. 

“Chief!” 

He yanked the steering wheel to the right. The centrifugal force pushed him out of the Warthog. He rolled into the tumble and landed two feet from the base of the Wraith. Without waiting to see if the cabin was occupied, he ran up the front, ripped open the hatch, and deposited a grenade inside. He closed the top and waited for the explosion.

Smoke plumed out of the cabin and the Chief crawled inside. He guided the burdensome vehicle forward, ready for the rest of the fight.

“Hunters!” Cortana cried. 

The Chief took aim at the bulky creatures. Before he could unleash a shot from the plasma cannon, a burst of green from the Hunter’s rail gun came sailing towards him. He pulled on the controls, but the Wraith was too slow to move out of the way. It shook violently as it absorbed the attack.

John aimed and fired at the Hunter before it had the chance to reload. The shot ripped through the air. Seconds later, the plasma burst hit its target. The Hunter collapsed on the ground, groaning deeply.

Then, John spun the cannon in the direction of the remaining Mgalekgolo. It was rushing towards the Wraith. John fired before the Hunter had a chance to raise his weapon. There was nowhere for the Covenant soldier to hide when the plasma hit him.

With the rail guns no longer being a threat, John steered the unwieldy vehicle through the field, running over any Covenant soldier that stood in his path. 

Ten minutes later, John, aided by the Wraith and his luck, eliminated all of the enemies on the ground. When he was sure that no Covenant were laying in wait, he exited the Wraith. The silence that had settled over the land seemed out of place.

“We’d better hurry. It’s not going to take long for them to send reinforcements.”

John sprinted to the center of the gravlift and remained motionless as it carried him up to the Covenant ship. His rifle was in hand, ready to take out any Covenant forces that were waiting for him. Curiously, when he got aboard, there were no signs of them anywhere.

“Usually we’re being shot at by now,” noted Cortana.

John stayed alert. Through the years the Covenant may have changed their fighting tactics when their vessel was boarded. Perhaps they were laying in wait until John turned a corner.

Or, perhaps, John thought as he walked and saw no Covenant forces, something was wrong.

The lack of Covenant wasn’t the only thing different about this vessel. There were monitors and holographic displays that lined the walls.

“Someone has been upgrading their ship,” Cortana commented. She uploaded a NAV marker to his HUD. “The energy signal is coming from there. Stay sharp. I’m detecting several Knights onboard.”

John switched his preferred assault rifle for its plasma counterpart. If he did encounter any of them, he wanted to be ready for the fight. Then, he started to make his way through the ship.

The panels were streaming a language that John didn’t recognize. The characters looked similar to the symbols he had seen on the Halo rings. Then, he saw one red symbol that caught his attention.

“I’ve seen this before. On the terminals,” he said.

“It’s the symbol for a Forerunner called the Didact,” Cortana offered.

He remembered reading the name --and that of a Librarian-- in those files. What did he have to do with what was going on now?

“What else does it say?” John asked, watching the symbols speed by.

“Forerunner translation is a tricky thing, Chief. Just ask your Arbiter buddy. It’s going to take some time to figure it out,” said Cortana. “I’ll have my subroutines work on a translation while we focus on the energy signature.”

John made his way through the ship to where she had marked. Still, they had encountered no enemies, Forerunner or Covenant. As he stood on the side of the double doors which led to the room that the energy signature was coming from, he considered his approach.

“I’m detecting no Knights or Covenant on the other side of the door,” said Cortana.

“That’s what I’m worried about.”

There was no reason to wait any longer. John gripped the plasma pistol, ready to take out whatever was waiting for him on the other side of the door. He stepped forward. 

The doors slid apart and revealed an enormous room. In the center, three ledges appeared to be impossibly floating in midair with ramps on alternating sides to connect them. 

“Definitely _not_ Covenant,” Cortana murmured. “Whatever is emitting the energy signal is on the top ledge. Good thing you’re not afraid of heights.”

John moved to the first ramp and started his ascent. When he reached the first ledge, he saw a large control panel that spanned the length of the ledge. It looked akin to the one they had seen in the Station. Thousands of lines of data were streaming on several holographic panels. 

“I need to get in there, Chief.” There was an edge of desperation to her voice.

Her earlier warning hadn’t been forgotten by John. Despite the fact that she had seemed more or less like her normal self since he had awoken, the threat of her rampancy taking a deadly turn --for either of them-- hadn’t passed. He shook his head slightly. “I can’t let you do that.”

The video feed of her appeared in the corner of his display. Cortana smiled at him patiently, as though she was amused by his slowness. “Yes, you can. All you do is eject the data crystal from your helmet and insert it into the interface.” She winked. “I seem to remember you doing it once or twice before.”

“Cortana, we’re here to find the source of the energy signal you located.” He started to walk away from the control panel.

“Wait, John.” He stopped. She drew in a breath. “I know what you’re thinking. That I’m going to fall deeper into the abyss. But, that’s not going to happen. You’re here to keep me from falling in, remember?” 

“Let’s focus on our current objective,” he said, hoping to divert her.

Unfortunately, she was not so easily distracted. All the warmth melted from her features. “Yank me, Chief.” Her voice was chilling. Her eyes cold.

If distraction wasn’t going to work, then John was willing to go the direct route. He took a step forward, away from the computer. “I’m not going to do that.”

His HUD suddenly blinked off. 

Darkness pervaded his vision.

“Cortana?”

Then, the image of Cortana’s face filled his visor. Her pupils were white with rage. Her voice shook in anger. “ _Do it, now_!”

His screen went dark again.

He refused to be intimated. “No.”

Then, he lifted up his visor and purposively walked past the control panel.

She shouted at him through their comm channel, demanding that he stop and turn around. But, John steadfastly ignored her. He proceeded up the next ramp, leaving the control panel behind. Cortana’s shouting had evolved into frantic pleas, appealing to John’s humanity to keep her from suffering. 

“Enough!” he finally said. “I’m not putting you in danger, Cortana.”

“I hate you.”

John flinched.

She said nothing after that. Despite his turmoil of emotions --something that should have never affected him while he was behind enemy lines-- John was relieved at the silence. 

The ground leveled out and opened to the next ledge which contained a holographic map of what looked like the galaxy. John recognized the six Halo rings which hovered at various locations. On the edge of map, the Ark was there. But when he took a closer look, he noticed that it only looked half-complete. A grouping of purple letters hovered next to it.

To the left, John recognized the Sol System. Home. How far away were they from getting back to Earth?

Knowing he would find no answers looking at the map, he walked past the hologram. Beyond it there were a half-dozen meter-high pillars that lined the center of the platform. They glowed blue and hummed softly. John wondered what their purpose was, a power supply perhaps.

He moved slowly past each pillar. Without access to his radar on his HUD, he had no idea if there was anyone there to ambush him. He needed to stay on guard, despite Cortana’s earlier reassurance the room was empty.

His mind swirled with conflict at the thought of her. She had been upfront with her deteriorating condition; it had been him who stubbornly refused to believe another one of the people he fought alongside with --one of his friends-- wasn’t going to make it back to Earth.

If she was going to prevent him from being able to complete his current objective, then he was going to have to consider options that he wouldn’t have entertained when he first exited the cryotube.

Including activating the killswitch.

He needed to reach her through the madness she was fighting. After he walked past the last pillar, he paused his march to the top. “Cortana.”

She didn’t answer him.

They didn’t have time for him to attempt to mend things between him and her, but, like when he had found her on _High Charity_ , he was willing to risk his safety to reach out to her. John looked below to where the doors were; there was still no movement on the ground level.

“Cortana,” he repeated.

He heard a faint whimper and then a broken sob. “It’s not fair, John. To think like a human, to feel like a human, but not be able to live like one,” she whispered. “I was condemned to this torment the day _she_ activated me. She lied, you know, rampancy does hurt.”

Doctor Halsey.

John always held the doctor in high esteem. She had given his life purpose. She had helped he and the others to become the greatest soldiers humanity had ever known. Yes, the price had been high, but it had been worth it. His faith in her only wavered slightly when she took Kelly away from the _Gettysburg_ without any warning. Even then, he had justified her actions.

“You will be fine. We just need to find the energy signal first,” he encouraged.

“Not even you can save everyone, Chief.” 

Her words seems ironic. He may have saved humanity alongside Cortana, but the people he cared about --Sam, the majority of the Spartans, Johnson -- he was never able to rescue.

John was more determined than before to make sure Cortana’s name wasn’t going to be added to the list.

Abruptly, she cried, “You need to activate the killswitch. End your torment and my own!”

The Gravemind has made a similar demand to him when he was attempting to rescue Cortana. Despite his earlier reluctance to accept the fact that he may have to activate her killswitch, he wasn’t going to assist her to end her life unless it was a necessity. “I’m not going to do that.”

“Why not?” She let out a long, shaky sigh. “It would make everything easier.” She sounded more tired than John had ever known.

“We’ve never done things the easy way,” he countered. 

“I don’t even know who I am anymore. Fighting rampancy is becoming hopeless,” she whispered. The trepidation in her voice was palpable.

“You’ve done the impossible before,” he reminded her. 

There was a long pause. Then, she asked, “Have I ever mentioned that you’re the most stubborn person I’ve ever known?” There was a hint of the old Cortana in the question.

“Once or twice.”

John glanced at the ground below them. They were still alone. 

Finally, she spoke. “We’ll see how much fight I have left in me, I guess. By the way, I’ve reactivated your HUD. You can move your visor back now.” 

John snapped it back into place. All of readouts were as they should have been. A half-second later, her video window appeared. She was biting her lip, embarrassed. After a half a second, she said, “John...thanks for not giving up on me yet.” The window blinked off.

John continued up the final ramp. On the top ledge, there was a large cube that floated a meter off the ground. On each of the sides, there was an opening. Three crystal shards were suspended with the chamber, one on a different side.

“We’ve seen something like this before...haven’t we?” she asked.

“Yes. Doctor Halsey found the entire crystal on Reach after the attack by the Covenant.”

He was slightly concerned about mentioning the doctor. Cortana’s contempt for her had been blatant when she spoke of her earlier. 

The AI seemed unperturbed by the reference to her. She was calm when she said, “Give me a second to access my files.” Five seconds passed. “A lot of the data during that time has been corrupted, but there’s enough for me to extrapolate what happened. Wasn’t the crystal destroyed?”

He thought of Corporal Locklear and his actions which led to his death. “Yes.”

“But the Covenant managed to find these. The question is what do they want with them and what does it have to do with the Forerunners?”

John frowned. While the crystal’s power had been unrealized by the UNSC, the Covenant seemingly knew its purpose and was willing to go after the shards, despite the difficulty of finding them.

“We need to get these out of here,” Cortana said.

John agreed. He moved to stand in front of the cube. Then, he reached up and attempted to remove one of the shards.

A bright orange light prevented him from reaching the crystal.

“It’s some sort of force field,” Cortana unnecessarily explained. 

“Can you disable it?”

“Yes, but you’ll have to move quickly. I’ve never encountered such security measures before.” There was a seven-second pause. “OK, now Chief!”

John reached in and snatched the piece. As he removed it from the chamber, the shard was surrounded by some kind of rectangular light. When he tried to touch the shard itself, the light thwarted him.

“Amazing,” Cortana murmured. “The light is acting like your armor’s shield, but it’s _much_ more powerful. I would suspect that it is a safeguard against its physics-bending abilities so that their slipspace drives aren’t affected by its presence on the ship.”

John slid the crystal and its case into one of the compartments on his armor before he moved to the next side. He waited for Cortana’s signal, but she said nothing.

“Cortana?”

“I’m trying, Chief. The encryption is self-learning so I’m having to work faster than I have in a long time.” The field fizzled briefly, but reactivated. “I can’t--” Suddenly, her voice got panicked. “We’re going to have to leave the others for now. Grabbing that shard has caught someone’s attention. I’m tracking five Knights headed to our position.”

John considered his escape options. Going back down the way he came would take time, but if he leapt off the ledge to the floor below, he could be out of the room before reinforcements arrived. He stepped close to the edge and peered down.

“I knew that jet pack would come in handy,” Cortana mused.

John activated the pack and soared above the ground below.. He was airborne for three seconds, then landed on the ground with a solid thump. John stood up and walked to the doors.

As they slid apart, they revealed the Knights. Each was armed, their eyes burned behind their armor. Before John could retreat, one of the hulking creatures reached forward and wrapped his hand around John’s throat. The Knight shoved him against the wall.

“The rumors we have heard about you are true. You meddle with things that you cannot begin to understand.” He leaned forward, his face just a couple of inches from the edge of John’s visor. “Have you figured out the mysteries of this planet, Reclaimer? And what of your construct?” he asked, moving away slightly. “Do you still burden yourself with its presence?”

John said nothing.

The Knight shoved him in the chest with his free hand. Fire roared through his body. John would have staggered forward if he hadn’t been pinned against the wall. “I asked you a question, child.”

John refused to reply.

Another Knight snarled. “Perhaps this one is in need of motivation.”

The grip around his neck tightened. “Where is it? Tell me now!”

John remained silent even as his air supply was getting cut off. Black spots invaded his vision. Every fiber in his body screamed for him to get some desperately needed oxygen. 

“John, say something!” Cortana cried over their private comm channel.

He forced his voice through his crushed throat. “Sierra-117, Master Chief Petty Officer. UNSC Frigate, _Forward Unto Dawn_ , registry FFG-201.”

“Insolence!” the Knight howled. He squeezed harder.

Just when John was certain he was going to pass out, a booming voice came from the side of him. “Release him! I told you to apprehend the human, not to kill him.”

The creature moved into John’s line of vision. He looked like a larger version of the Knight that stood before him. 

The Knight reluctantly released him. John leaned forward and gasped for air, wheezing and coughing as he tried to suck in as much oxygen as he could. 

When he recovered, the Knight who had ordered his release, spoke, “Come, there is much to discuss.”

“Who are you?”

“I am the Delegate. You will come with me, Reclaimer.”

They were marched through the halls of the _Diligent Seeker_. The Delegate led the way, John walked behind him and the Knights, with their guns pointed at the back of the Spartan, brought up the rear. Various Covenant soldiers watched the Chief as he made his way through the ship. 

“You thought yourself invincible, Demon. Now, your time of terror is at an end,” one Elite snarled.

“They sure know how to make us feel welcome,” Cortana muttered.

After climbing up to decks, they were brought to a large room. Several gold-armored Elites stood guard at the door. In the center of the room, there was a large seat that almost reminded John of a throne. 

“I am sure you have many questions.” The Delegate sat down on the chair. “And I will satisfy your curiosity soon, but first, we must discuss the issue of your construct.”

“You possess something of terrible power, Reclaimer. Something you and your kind cannot begin to understand. It is not only a monument to your sins, but the sins of those who came before you,” said the Delegate.

John frowned as he remembered that Cortana had professed herself to be as such when he was searching for her on _High Charity_.

“Your construct is a danger to the entire universe. The knowledge it contains is too detrimental for one entity to carry: Forerunner, Flood, Human and Covenant. All of their intelligence lies within its matrices. I believe your kind has a saying, ‘absolute power corrupts’. Such is true when it is concerning your construct. Tell me, Reclaimer, has it threatened you? Attempted to cause you harm?”

John remained silent, uncomfortable with how accurately the Delegate had been able to predict Cortana’s recent behavior.

The Delegate looked at him knowingly. “You do not need to say anything. Your silence is answer enough. We, too, had an AI with incredible knowledge and power. It turned against those that created it. Nearly every Forerunner in the universe died because of the choice it made to align itself with the enemy. One single AI propelled the extinction of an entire race.”

He leaned forward. “If your construct has already unleashed damnation on the stars once, who is to say that it will not happen again? This time with more devastating consequences.”

“He could be right, Chief.” Cortana’s voice spoke through their comm. 

It didn’t matter to John if this creature in front of him was completely correct. He was not going to deliver Cortana into the hands of the enemy. “Protocol is clear. Destruction or capture of an UNSC AI is unacceptable,” he said to her, quoting the charge Captain Keyes had given him years ago. 

More softly, he said. “I’m not leaving you behind.”

The Delegate, ignorant of their exchange, settled back in his seat. “It cannot be salvaged. It must not be allowed to remain active.”

There was an element of fear in his voice that caught John’s attention. It wasn’t fear of Cortana or her potential actions, it was the fear of failing to capture her. He thought back to the transmissions that Cortana had intercepted in the Covenant battlenet.

“Is she the Intellect? Is that why you want to disable her?”

A shocked quiet settled over the room. When the Delegate spoke, he avoided John’s question. “ _Her_? Do you think of it as a sentient or is your species so sentimental as to give objects such esteem? _It_ is a program. A collection of data. Its decisions are not made by free will but because of the protocols it was programmed with.”

“You’re not getting her.” John’s use of the pronoun was intentional.

The Delegate tilted his head as if he was listening to something, but John heard nothing. Then, he straightened and spoke, “Your desire to protect the one you value is admirable. My master, too, once faced a conflict like this, to be tempted to put the well-being of one over all else.”

“If you deliver your construct to us, I will allow you to keep the shard which you have stolen for your people to study. I will provide safe transport to your home system.” The Elites behind John grumbled. The Delegate held up a hand and they were silenced. “You can continue to fight alongside your fellow humans as you were destined to do.”

“Now...” He stood up and outstretched his hand. “Give me the construct.”

John was going to do no such thing. “We need a way out of here,” he said to Cortana.

“I’m on it.”

John lifted his head defiantly. He hoped Cortana could come up with an escape quickly. “She’s staying with me.”

The Delegate’s helmet peeled back, revealing the flaming skull underneath. “I have heard rumors of your rebellion by those that are faithful. You will give me the construct. Or you will die.”

John’s fingers itched to reach for the gun that was still on his back. “Cortana?”

A heartbeat later, she replied. “All right, be ready to get the hell off this ship.”

Suddenly, the lights went out and the klaxon started sounding. John’s visor switched to infrared, allowing him to see in the room. John took advantage of the confusion and ducked down. He swung a leg out and kicked the legs out from the Knight closest to him. The weapon the hulking solder held fell to the ground, next to John.

The Spartan grabbed the fallen weapon and shot at another Knight that was headed in his direction. Two shots later, the Knight exploded in a thousand pieces.

“We don’t have time for you to test out your new toy. We need to get out of here now!”

John rushed to the large doors. They slid apart and he continued making his way to the position Cortana marked on his display. His heart was pounding, his chest burned with every breath he took, but John was determined to get off the ship alive. 

He slipped down the corridor as the surviving Knights rushed to stop him. Another set of doors were before him. They opened as he approached, revealing a large, empty cargo bay. “Cortana, there are no ships here.”

“I know, Chief. But even if there was one, we couldn’t use it. We’d be shot down before we made it halfway down to the planet. I’m going to override the ship’s systems and you’re going to have to jump.”

John grimaced. Jumping from twenty meters was one thing. Leaping to a planet’s surface, even with the jet pack that Cortana has created, from two kilometers was another.

A deep boom sounded against the door that Cortana had managed to lockdown. Without any other options, John reluctantly agreed, “Let’s do it.”

“Working,” Two seconds later, the bay doors opened.

John eyed the planet below. Then, he drew a breath and jumped.

“Gironimo,” Cortana whispered.

011001010110111001100100  
 **0415 hours, July 22, 2557  
Requiem Shield World  
Forerunner Installation SW-0043**

_I’m never going to leave this planet._

Instead of her thought being laced with desperation, there was acceptance. The anger that she had experienced had completely faded when John had fallen into his drug-induced slumber; it had morphed into an amalgamation of envy, despair and depression that had caused her to lash out at John in a way she hadn’t thought possible.

She had managed to overcome the powerful torrent of emotions when John had reached out to her after her outburst. She couldn’t explain how his words could cut through the shouts of madness. But, like on _High Charity_ , he had managed to keep her from looking too far and falling into the abyss. As Cortana had accepted that he would not forsake her, she felt a calm settle over her.

Somehow, over the years of solitude, she had forgotten how the Chief’s stubbornness could be an asset.

The serenity she now felt made her almost believe that she had reached the elusive stage of metastability. But, her data saturation levels were still continuing to rise. 

She would complete her final mission and accept the reality she fought long and hard against.

Like every human who came before her, she was going to die. 

Before her demise, she was determined to do two things: find a way for the Chief to get back to UNSC controlled space and solve the mysteries of Requiem. In some way, she played a role into the Forerunner’s plans, whatever they were. She had noticed the panicked feeling that settled over the room when John had brought up whether she was the Intellect.

She wondered how he had pieced that information together; she had only made a passing reference when they were on the _Dawn_. Cortana wanted to ask him about his intuitive question, but the Spartan was currently trying to keep them alive.

Four Banshees screamed as they flew out of the _Diligent Seeker_. As John tore through the sky, he turned his body towards the approaching enemy. He raised the gun he had stolen from one of the Knights and shot at the closest Banshee. The first shot missed, but the second one made contact with the flying craft.

The Banshee and its driver disintegrated immediately. The explosion caused a confetti of light to color the nighttime sky.

His shields dropped as another Banshee hit him with its energy gun. Cortana marked the Covenant’s position on his display. He needed to eliminate the threat quickly; the ground was fast approaching.

John activated his jetpack for two seconds, allowing the Banshees to swoop under them. He took advantage of the higher ground and fired two shots. Each hit its own target; the Banshees exploded into a burst of light like the other. 

The remaining Banshee retreated to the _Diligent Seeker_. 

“Guess he didn’t want to become a fireworks show,” Cortana commented.

John continued to sail through the sky, using the freefall to his full advantage. He guided them closer to Requiem’s control center. When they were a thousand meters from the ground, John activated the jetpack and guided them to ground below.

They were now less than three kilometers from the towering building. John faced the control center and, then, he pulled out the light box that held the crystal shard and looked down at it.

“What do you think they are trying to do?” he asked.

It was the one answer Cortana desperately craved. “You mean besides trying to convince you that you’re better off without me?” She activated her video feed on his visor and gave John an inquisitive look. “How _did_ you know they consider me to be the Intellect?”

“Lucky guess.” He glanced again at the crystal. “We need to figure out why they brought the shards here.”

“I won’t know anything until I access the main systems. Remotely,” she assured him.

He slipped the case back into a compartment on his armor and took stock of his inventory. He had one shot left in the lightrifle, a plasma pistol with a quarter-full battery cell, and two plasma grenades.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we had some company waiting in there. We need to find you some weapons fast. The energy levels coming from the control center are rising rapidly,” Cortana said.

The radar picked up two enemy lifesigns, both Promethean Knights, coming from the east. John used the large trees to his advantage and hid in its shadows. Then, he started to do something completely unexpected: he started to climb the tree.

“I don’t think those branches can support a half-ton Spartan, Chief,” warned Cortana.

He moved up several meters and looked below. The Knights’ height prohibited them from moving through the forest unseen. Cortana tracked their progress when they were still several hundred feet away. 

The tree cracked when John shifted to move the lightrifle into position. Several winged creatures chirped angrily in protest at their homes being invaded. He raised the gun and looked out the scope.

Branches and other trees would make the shot difficult, but not impossible. He held his breath as one of the Knights came into view. Cortana knew he had to be perfect. Once he fired, their position would be revealed.

Then, just as the center of the scope lined up with the Knight’s position, John fired.

He didn’t wait to see if the target hit its mark before he slid down the trunk and laid on the forest floor. 

The Knight cried out before he shattered in an eruption of light. The other Promethean shot in their direction; the Chief flattened himself closer to the earth. When the folly of shots stopped, John activated the grenade he had grabbed from his armor.

“Don’t miss.”

“I won’t.”

With a swift motion, he hurled it towards the Knight. The plasma grenade stuck to the back of his armor, on the left shoulder. There was nothing he could do to stop the grenade from detonating; his body flew in the air, landing several meters away from the tree.

Slowly, John lifted himself off the ground. Cortana didn’t miss the fact he winced as he moved to stand. “I’m fine,” he said before she could say anything.

Cortana accessed his vitals. “Fine” was an overstatement. “I wasn’t aware ‘fine’ was synonymous with critically injured.”

John didn’t reply. He picked up the additional ammo and proceeded towards the building. They were close enough to stand in its shadow. It looked remarkably similar to the other Forerunner structures they had found: grey and monstrous, ostentatious and superlative.

He walked through the doors that slid apart with a hiss. They revealed an entrance that opened into a large area with several passageways.

“There is a relay station here.” She uploaded a NAV marker. “I should be able to access enough data to figure out what is going on.”

It didn’t take long for John to reach the destination. So far, no one had confronted them which caused Cortana to be slightly concerned. The Prometheans didn’t seem like the type of beings who gave up a fight easily. 

John approached the relay station and waited for Cortana.

Since her activation, Cortana had never relied on anyone to help her obtain access into foreign systems. But, the Forerunners had security countermeasures in place to prevent any AI from obtaining data remotely. She would have to work in tandem with the Chief to retrieve the data they needed.

“Hope you’re ready for a crash course in hacking,” she said. “I’ll be transmitting data remotely to keep the system from locking us out. You’ll need to do what I say exactly or else we’re going to have to start over.”

“Right.” His voice contained a hint of something Cortana wasn’t used to hearing from him: uncertainty.

“Press the yellow hexagon twice. Then, rotate the blue sphere eight-five degrees to the left until it locks into place. That should get us access to the root menu,” instructed Cortana.

He did as she had said. As expected, the system’s security measures started to activate. Cortana blocked them from entering the console by bombarding the system with several billion algorithms. Satisfied, she sent a burst of commands to the station, unlocking the protected information. 

Data started revealing itself. There were millions of files to access, but there one was named “Schism” that caught her attention. 

“Tap the red triangle twice. Then hold down the blue sphere.”

When he did, petabytes of information poured through the system. When she was finished accessing all of the information, Cortana’s subroutines paused for a half a millisecond as she processed what she had just read. She uploaded a NAV point to the section of the building where the Schism was. “Get moving, Chief. I know what they’re planning and you’re going to have to stop them.”

John stepped away from the panel and backtracked to the entrance. “What are they trying to do?”

“Requiem was a shield world used by the Didact after the Forerunner-Flood War. He found this planet and started to build a machine that would ‘right the wrongs of the Flood’. That crystal that Doctor Halsey found on Reach is the key to activating the Schism.”

“What does it do?”

“It is, in essence, a time machine. Remember how time seemed to bend around us when we were travelling through slipspace when we were in possession of the crystal? The Schism amplifies that signal exponentially. Anyone who is within its inner core will be sent back to the moment in time that has been programmed,” Cortana explained as they rode up a gravlift.

“But they only have two shards,” John noted.

“That would limit how far back they could travel, but there’s nothing to indicate that it won’t work without the crystal fully intact,” Cortana replied. With the limited data she had, Cortana couldn’t ascertain what the Promethean’s next move was. “If we’re going to figure out what they’re doing, I need to get into the main system.”

“If you go in there--”

“I’m not coming out,” she finished solemnly. “I know, Chief. But, if we don’t stop whatever they are going to do, then alterations to the timeline could be irrevocable.”

John was silent as he considered her logic. She hoped he know that this plea to enter the system was different than the one she had made on the _Diligent Seeker_. That one stemmed from desperation, this one, of necessity.

He followed the pathway and walked through another pair of doors. Inside the room, as if by providence, there was a terminal. “Are you sure?” He sounded disheartened, as if he held the responsibility for not being able to save Cortana.

“Yes.” For the first time since she had woken John, she had a clearly defined objective. “Yank me, Chief.”

In the second it took for John to reach around to eject her crystal, Cortana grieved that fact that this would be the last time they would be linked together. Their connection had allowed her to live vicariously through John, experiencing a level of humanity that other AIs never had. 

From that initial test on Reach, John had shown her the value of teamwork. They had saved humanity --and the universe-- together. Now, she would have to complete her final mission alone in a foreign system, away from the one she had chosen to be her custodian.

John inserted her chip and Cortana was immersed in the Forerunner systems. It took her less than a half-second to weave through the systems to find the information she sought. 

She activated her avatar from the console, her eyes wide in shock. “They are going to go back to Reach. Before it was attacked. They’re going to try to retrieve the crystal in its entirety.” The data poured into her matrices faster than she could process it. “It makes sense,” she said distractedly. “It’s the only time the Covenant were close enough for them to even attempt this.”

“What do you mean ‘close enough’?”

Cortana scrambled for an explanation. She was barely able to comprehend how the Schism worked. “This machine doesn’t transport a person’s physical body through time. It uploads a person’s consciousness and sends it back in time. It then supersedes the original consciousness...sort of a twist on the Pauli exclusion principle.”

“That would mean I would be back on Reach.”

Before its destruction.

Before the deaths of so many.

Cortana recognized the longing in his voice. “I don’t need to remind you the dangers of polluting the timeline and creating a paradox,” she reminded gently. “Besides, the transference is only temporary. There is a small window --several hours at most-- and then time will start to pull back on itself. Then, your consciousness will return here in the altered timeline.”

Her brows furrowed. “I’m willing to guess that at least one of those Elites on the _Diligent Seeker_ were on Reach when the Covenant attacked which means they will be within range of the crystal too. You need to find it before they do, Chief.”

A burst of data pushed against her efforts to keep the Schism locked down. She was fighting a losing battle. “If the Schism is activated at full power, there is no limit to how far back in time they will be able to travel,” warned Cortana. More data filtered into her matrices. “I’ve just detected the transport signal in the Schism’s core. I’ve managed to block their attempts to gain access into the mainframe, but I don’t know how long I can hold them off.”

“Understood.”

She wondered if he really could understand; she had difficulty fully comprehended the potential of the machine. The details probably didn’t matter to John, she acknowledged. He had a mission to save the universe --again-- and he would do whatever it took to make sure it was a success.

There was one more thing she needed to do in case she wasn’t able to keep the Prometheans and the Covenant from activating the Schism. She uploaded several files to her data crystal. She added a protocol to the chip to make it compatible with the Mark V armor that John had on Reach. 

“That case around the shard acts as a tether between anything in it and the person’s consciousness. If I’m analyzing the data correctly--” And with the crashing waves of information flooding her matrices, she may not have been. “--then anything in it will be transported with you.”

“How is that possible?”

“How does a single crystal hold enough power to send a consciousness through time?” She shook her head. “It has something to do with tethering itself to your PSI wave pattern, but really I just don’t know, Chief.”

The data was starting the smother her. She forced herself to focus on the Master Chief. “I’ve overwritten the security protocols so you can now open the case anytime you need to. You just need to put one more thing in there.”

“What?”

“My data crystal.” She paused as the weight of reality pressed on her. Her program was going to terminate. Soon. “I’ve made some modifications so that you’ll be able to use it if the Schism gets activated and you get sent back to Reach. I sent the files with the exact location of the crystal based on Doctor Halsey’s report.”

John hesitated. If he took the crystal, then she would be sealed to her fate.

“It’s alright, John. I’ll do what I can to keep them busy until you get in there.” She hoped she could last that long; she was drowning in an impossible amount of data. Only the vastness of Requiem’s computers kept her from getting pulled under.

There was a mixture of terror and relief when he ejected the chip and slid it inside the case.

She was alone. She was going to die. But now, unlike when she was floating in deep space, her death would have purpose.

“Good luck, Chief.”

For a moment, it seemed as if he was going to say something. But, he simply nodded curtly. Then, he turned around and walked away.

Cortana waited until the doors closed behind him. Then, she deactivated her avatar and transferred herself to the Schism’s core. It was time to confront a certain Promethean with an attitude problem.

Moving through the control center’s systems was more difficult than Cortana would have liked. She had never encountered such enormity of power and knowledge. The data lured her like a siren’s song, doing what it could to distract her from her objective.

Once or twice Cortana found herself straying off task. But, she thought of John and was able to pull herself back on focus.

She transferred herself to the Schism’s main control systems. The Delegate stood in the center of the room.

It was time to say hello.

She activated her avatar from the relay. The Delegate walked in her direction, appraising her. “We meet at long last, Intellect.”

“Don’t flatter me with pet names.” She needed to stall. John was only halfway to the inner core of the Schism. 

“We all have titles. Some have been earned, others have not.” The Delegate leaned down and studied her closely. “Which category do you fall in, I wonder.”

“Considering I’ve managed to keep you from activating this machine, I’d have to say earned,” she said with false bravado. Her matrices were significantly slowed. Travelling through the system had bogged her down. But he didn’t need to know any of that.

“Such arrogance,” he sighed. “Tell me, Intellect, was that something programmed into your personality or did you steal that from your Source like you did so many her other memories?”

Cortana was stunned. He knew her origins.

Then, to her dismay, the countdown to Schism’s systems activated.

“You will not be able to save the one you were programmed to protect.” He pulled back. “Your creator added that protocol to your program, you know. Your feelings to protect the Reclaimer are nothing but a result of subroutines working with your original programming.” He scoffed. “You did not think you had _real_ emotions, did you?”

“That’s not true.” She raised her head resolutely. “The connection we have is bound in destiny and fortified in trust.”

The Delegate stiffened. “Where have you heard that?” he demanded.

Truthfully, Cortana didn’t know. The random cluster of data seemed to enter her matrices on its own volition. She wasn’t going to reveal that to him though. She shrugged. “Around. I _am_ the Intellect after all.”

His pupils burned behind the mask. He spun around the room and shouted, “You are too late! Nothing will stop the plan. _He_ has declared it!”

He stomped to where Cortana stood. “Do you think we fear this? The evidence of its demise is glaringly obvious!” He turned to the AI. “You pose no threat to us.”

Her subroutine alerted her to the fact that John had entered the inner core. “Don’t be too sure about that.”

He waved off her words. “We _will_ get what we seek.” The Delegate leaned down, only inches from her avatar. “The Reclaimer seems terribly protective of you, does he not?”

The calculations over Cortana’s body stopped as understanding dawned on her. “You allowed John to get in here,” she whispered.

His helmet shot open, revealing the flaming skull underneath. “Of course we did! When he travels back in time, he will retrieve the crystal and then give it to us himself. Perhaps the man he was five years ago would have easily allowed your program to terminate in exchange for a successful mission. This man will not.”

Cortana crossed her arms defiantly. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Perhaps you underestimate the power you hold over him.”

She needed to stop the Schism. Now.

With a speed that she thought she had lost, she raced through the systems, doing what she could to sabotage the Promethean plan. She uploaded billions of algorithms to the Schism’s primary systems, hoping to slow it down with all the superfluous data. Cortana did her best to outthink the computer’s adaptive technology, but she was smothering herself with all the data.

“I will not allow you to leave this planet!” she cried, her pupils blazing white.

He leaned close to her. Cortana thought she could feel the heat of the flame on her cheeks. “You are powerless to stop us, Intellect.”

“Leave her alone.”

The Chief was standing at the entrance of the room with a lightrifle pointed at the Delegate. 

The Promethean snarled as he stood up to face John. His helmet snapped shut back into place. Before he turned around, he said to Cortana, “As I was saying...quite protective.”

The Delegate moved to stand between her and the Chief. “My commission is now complete. I have fulfilled my purpose.” Then, much louder. “You have failed!” 

He disappeared as he transported himself out of the room.

John walked across the room and knelt in front of the holotank. “What happened?”

Her thoughts had nowhere to go; her data saturation level was nearly at one hundred percent. She shrugged. The movement took more effort than it should. “You know guys like that. They talk the big talk--” Her hologram flickered. It was becoming almost impossible to find the protocols to operate her avatar. “I don’t have much time left, John.”

There was less than a minute until the Schism was activated. She wouldn’t be able to stop it, but, at least, she could pass on knowing that John would be able to continue where she left off. He would make sure the mission was a success.

She needed to warn him of the Delegate’s plan. “He let you in here, John. They are going to force you to make a choice: me or the crystal. You know what you have to do.”

“I’ll make my own option.” 

“Stubborn,” she said exasperatedly.

Cortana suddenly fell to her knees as she felt a bolt of pain course over her. She was getting buried by the amount of information her matrix contained. Her thoughts were moving too slow --or was it too fast? There seemed to be an impossible contradiction of having too much and not enough data to process.

“What can I do to help?” John’s voice distracted her from the agony of death.

She shook her head. “Nothing, Chief. This is the end for me. You’ve shown me--You’ve shown me--” She stopped talking and implemented a simple protocol to attempt to prevent any further redundancies in her speech subroutine. 

She started again. “You’ve shown me the best humanity has to offer. Your intelligence, your bravery, your stubbornness.” She managed to smile despite the overwhelming sadness she felt. “Thank you for making me feel alive.”

They only had a few seconds before the Schism activated. She squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see her warped reflection in John’s visor.

In the darkness, she saw a glowing light. It wasn’t white as humans often claimed, but a serene aqua. 

It was time. 

She allowed the light to surround her.

“I’ll miss you, John,” she whispered.

Then, CTN 0425-9’s program was terminated.

0110001101101000011010010110010101100110

**0730 hours, July 22, 2557  
Control Center, Requiem Shield World  
Forerunner Installation SW-0043**

John hadn’t been able to save Cortana.

She had disappeared before he could accept the fact and reply that he would miss her as well. He had come to expect her advice and guidance, along with a glib retort or two.

Now, there was silence.

He didn’t have long to reflect on Cortana’s demise. Soon, a rumbling in the distance grew louder until the vibrations were felt by the Spartan. A light flooded the room. John raised his arm to try to shield his eyes, but his retinas burned at the brightness.

Then, there was darkness. 

Suddenly, he felt as if the ground was pulled out from under him. He tried to reach out to brace himself, but he could no longer feel his hands, feet, or any other part of his body. Gusts of wind whipped around him. A myriad of voices talked over each other. He was able to pick out snippets out of the cacophony of sounds.

_”Stop the rings. Save the rest.”_

_“After that stunt on Cairo, I know you’re not afraid of heights.”_

_“Coming here was reckless. You two know better than this...thanks.”_

The winds moved faster, the voices spoke louder. His mind throbbed as he was pulled through the very fabric of time. Finally, there was a red light in the horizon. It grew closer and closer until it was the only thing he could see. Then, the wind ceased and the voices were silent, save one.

“I have long dreamt of this day, Reclaimer,” said an unfamiliar voice.

Then, there was darkness once more.

The next thing John was aware of was a high-pitched chirp that sounded it was coming from a heart monitor. His mind struggled to understand where the sound was coming from when it abruptly stopped. 

Then, he heard the concerned voice of a familiar woman. “Would someone tell me how my Spartan went into cardiac arrest during a routine tendon fusion?”

Doctor Halsey.

“I don’t know, Doctor. He was doing fine, then his heart stopped beating for several seconds,” a young man answered. His voice wavered.

Slowly, John opened his eyes and knew exactly to when he had travelled. He recognized that medical bay that he was in; it was the same one he had been taken to after the test on Reach when he had first been introduced to Cortana. 

In his hand, he felt the box pressed against his palm. It seemed as if Cortana had been right, the container had somehow travelled with him through time. Unfortunately, John couldn’t yet check to see if the shard and data crystal had as well, not under Doctor Halsey’s watchful eye.

“I’d appreciate it if your assistants didn’t kill the Master Chief before we had a chance to complete our mission,” said an annoyed voice. “Or even start it for that matter.”

Cortana.

The emotional dam threatened to crack when John caught sight of her bright purple avatar. It was too soon to see her, to put up the charade of professional detachment. With a mental shove, he pushed his emotions aside. There would be time to mourn Cortana -- after his mission was complete.

“Not now, Cortana,” Doctor Halsey said warningly. She turned to John, somehow knowing he had awakened despite the fact that his face was hidden behind his visor and he hadn’t moved. “Are you alright, John?”

He nodded slowly, still trying to process the fact that he had really travelled back in time to Reach. “What happened, ma’am?”

Doctor Halsey pressed her lips together. “We are still trying to figure that out. You were being administered a dose of morphine when you went into some sort of anaphylactic shock.”

“Funny that there is nothing about any type of allergies in his medical file,” Cortana casually noted as she crossed her arms.

“Perhaps now would be a good time to deliver your analysis of the Master Chief’s interface to ONI,” Halsey suggested curtly. “I’ll tend to John’s injuries myself.” She grabbed the mending tool from her assistant and looked at the AI pointedly.

Cortana opened her mouth to argue, but she let out a frustrated sigh instead. “Very well, Doctor.” She turned to John. “Don’t die on me now, Master Chief. I have a vested interest in your well-being, after all.” Then, her avatar blinked off.

Doctor Halsey began to mend his tendon. “You’ll have to forgive Cortana. Since Colonel Ackerson’s attempt to make sure the test was a failure, she has become quite protective of you.”

“I understand, ma’am.”

During the quiet minutes that passed as Doctor Halsey tended to his injuries, John began to lay out a plan as to how he was going to retrieve the crystal without catching anyone’s attention. He focused on remembering what had happened this night. He recalled going to the _Pillar of Autumn_ to meet with Captain Keyes after he had met with his Spartans. Then, he went to Doctor Halsey’s office to retrieve and deliver Cortana’s data crystal before they set off for their mission.

There had been about a ninety-minute window between the two events. He would have to complete the retrieval of the crystal during that time.

Fifteen minutes later, Doctor Halsey finished knitting his tendon back together. His rotated his ankle gingerly several times as the doctor watched closely. When she was satisfied with his range of motion, she nodded to her techs who helped him replace the pieces of armor over his foot.

“How are you feeling, John?”

He stood up and stretched. He felt better than he had in a long time; the injuries of the Halo campaign had yet to affect his body. “Fine, ma’am.”

She studied him for a moment longer than normal before grabbing her tablet. “I know that the other Spartans are waiting for you at the Aszod ship-breaking yard, but I have a favor to ask of you. Captain Keyes would like a status report on the test. Please pass this along to him.” She pressed a few buttons on the tablet and a crystal ejected from it. 

John held out his right hand, before she noticed his left hand was clenched around the container from Requiem. She dropped a data chip in his hand without a second glance.

He slipped the crystal in one of his compartments. “Yes, ma’am.”

Doctor Halsey set down her tablet and stuck her hand out for him to shake. For a brief moment, John felt the urge to embrace her, to thank her for everything she had done to help him to become the man he was. But, he Hadn’t become John, the man who had lost his family, his friends and his way home. He was Spartan-117, the man who still steadfastly believed that he and his Spartans could do the near impossible.

He raised his hand and clasped hers, giving it a quick, firm shake.

“Good luck, John.”

“Thank you, ma’am.”

Having no reason to stay, John turned around and left the medical bay. Before he made his way to the waiting transport, he walked down the hall and found a secluded area. He opened his hand and saw the box. Inside, he could see the glowing light of the crystal, beside it was Cortana’s chip.

An ache he was unwilling to acknowledge settled over him. He opened the case as discreetly as he could and pulled out the data crystal. Then, he slipped the container and its valuable contents into an empty compartment in his armor, not wanting to be caught with the Forerunner technology. He snapped the pouch shut.

Before he made his way outside, he slipped the chip into the back of his helmet.

A video feed of Cortana suddenly appeared on his HUD.

Logically, John knew it wasn’t really Cortana, but his eyes still widened when he saw her there, smirk on her face. “Well,” she started, arching an eyebrow, “if you are watching this, then I will assume that means you actually did go back in time and the protocol I implemented worked. Guess your luck hasn’t run out after all.” The feed froze for a fraction of a second.

“Based on the time since you entered this timeline, you have this--” A timer popped up on his HUD. “--much time before you get pulled back to Requiem. It’s not much, I know. I would advise trying to get your hands on a Longsword to get to the caverns.

A wistful look passed over her face. “Captain Keyes is probably your best bet for that. He always did appreciate bending the rules a bit. Having a Spartan request to go offbase for a couple of hours would probably make his day.” 

She looked at him, as if studying his expression. Briefly, John forgot she was only a recording. “I can only imagine how hard this will be for you--seeing all of the Spartans...Captain Keyes...Johnson.” She drew in a long breath. “Me. The way I was before...this.”

She looked downward. “Good luck, John.” Then, the video feed blinked off.

John looked at where the image of his friend had been for an extra second before he pushed himself to move forward. He had less than three hours to retrieve the crystal.

In front of the medical facility there was a Warthog waiting for him. The private standing next to him gave him a salute before stepping out of John’s way. He returned the gesture before getting into the vehicle and speeding towards the yard.

It was surreal for John to travel through the base and seeing it so alive. Marines and ODSTs walked together, Pelicans and Bumblebees dotted the skies.

_They had no idea._

That wasn’t completely true, he amended. He had found out after they had returned to the Sol System that Colonel Holland and the Noble Team had been aware of the Covenant presence before any of the other Spartans and had made an attempt to thwart the invasion of Reach.

As he got closer to the ship-breaking yard, an unease settled over John as the reality of seeing his Spartan counterparts weighed on him. How could he act normal when he knew most of them would be dead in the next twenty-four hours?

He reminded himself about Cortana’s warning against polluting the timeline. The deaths of nearly two dozen Spartans in exchange for humanity’s safety was the clear, logical choice. Any Spartan --including himself-- would lay down their life for a mission’s success.

It didn’t mean that he could do the impossible and behave as if they hadn’t made the ultimate sacrifice. Avoiding the Spartans was something he didn’t do in the original timeline, but John knew if he saw the others --Fred, Kelly, Linda-- he would be unable to keep the mysteries of the future to himself. 

He opened a comm channel to Fred who was overseeing all of the Spartans and the supplies they were taking to the _Autumn_. “Fred, you there?”

A couple of seconds passed. “Go ahead, Chief.”

John thought he had prepared himself for hearing his old friend’s --his brother’s-- voice, but there was a moment when he was caught off-guard at the emotions running through him. If he doubted whether or not the attack on Reach and the subsequent Halo campaign had changed him, there was no question about it now. He didn’t remember a time when he felt emotionally vulnerable since the day Sam died.

Until now.

He forced himself to sound normal. “I need to deliver some material to Captain Keyes. Would you and the others make sure all of the equipment is accounted for?”

“We’ve got it, Chief,” he assured him. “Just make sure they have room for all of our equipment. We don’t want to be unprepared when we find the Covenant.”

His concern was ironic. They would fight the Covenant on their own land and still be completely unready.

“I’ll talk to the captain.” He forced himself not to think about what would happen the next day.

He thought Fred had terminated the comm channel, but then the Spartan spoke. “Rumors are flying around the base that you _deflected_ a missile during some training exercise this morning.”

“I’ll tell you about it when I get the hangars,” John replied. 

“Can’t wait.” Then, the comm channel ended.

John drove through the port, returning the salutes as he passed junior grade officers. How many of them wouldn’t survive the next 36 hours?

The _Autumn_ stood proudly, waiting to go on her impossible mission. The area surrounding the ship was bustling with crewmen and officers who were busy preparing the vessel for her departure. John stopped the Warthog and hopped out of the vehicle. Some soldiers stopped to look at the Spartan, but more were too consumed with their tasks to pay the Chief much mind.

As he got closer to the _Autumn_ ’s position, he heard a distinguishable voice shouting at a group of men that were at the end of a loading ramp. 

“I know some of you are getting tired and want nothing more than to go find a nice quiet place to rest your head. Well, that’s just too bad, Marines! What do you think they made coffee for? Now, get those supplies on the ship on the double. When we find them, those Covenant are gonna wish they were back home with their mommas!” Johnson shouted.

John was close enough to hear the chuckles of the soldiers. He looked and saw Johnson standing at the top of the ramp, cigar hanging between his lips. The Chief didn’t want the Sergeant to see him; in the original timeline, he wouldn’t speak to him directly until after the first Halo ring was destroyed. Then, John would greet him with a pistol pointed at his face.

It was something Johnson never let the Spartan forget.

John waited until Johnson walked down the ramp towards the boxes of supplies. Then, he stepped onto the _Autumn_ and made his way to the bridge.

It seemed surreal to John as he walked through the halls of the _Autumn_. It was untarnished, undamaged from the firefight it would endure. There was no damage caused by the crash on the Halo ring. There was no blood --human or Covenant-- staining the floors and walls. 

The inside of the _Autumn_ , like shipyard it was in, was a hive of activity. Soldiers were bustling through the corridors. A group of ODSTs followed John with their gaze as he passed through the mess hall. John ignored them.

Finally, he made it to the bridge which was full of officers tending to their stations, getting ready for the upcoming flight. In the center of it all, Captain Keyes stood, pipe in hand.

John stood at the edge of the entrance. “Permission to come on the bridge, Captain.”

Keyes turned towards John, twisting the pipe in his hand subconsciously. “Permission granted. And Master Chief, let’s dispense with the regulations. As long as you and your Spartans are stationed on the _Autumn_ , you are always welcome on the bridge.”

“Yes, sir.”

John took out the data crystal that Doctor Halsey had given him and held it out for the captain to take. “Doctor Halsey wanted me to deliver this to you, sir.”

“Still avoiding me, Catherine?” he muttered. He plucked the chip out of his hand. “Thank you, Chief.” He looked him up and down, giving him a onceover. “I heard you gave everyone quite a scare in the medical bay.”

There was only one person who had the time --and the desire-- to divulge the information to the captain. Cortana. John straightened. “I’m fine, sir.”

“I’m sure you are, Master Chief. Doctor Halsey wouldn’t have cleared you until she thought you were fit for duty.” Keyes looked down at the crystal. “Was there anything else?”

John hesitated briefly. Despite Cortana’s confidence that Keyes would be unlikely to balk at his request, John didn’t know how the captain was going to respond to his uncharacteristic request. “Sir, I’d like permission to use a Longsword to go off-base.”

Keyes tilted his head, perplexed. “What for, Master Chief?”

Before John could formulate an answer, Keyes held up a hand. “Hell, I don’t care. You have earned one last night of freedom. Just be sure to have it back before anyone notices it --or you-- missing or it will be both of our asses.”

“Thank you, sir.”

John exited the bridge and walked down the familiar halls as unobtrusively as possible. He climbed up two flights of stairs and made his way to the bay. The doors slid open. Pilots were around their aircrafts, making the final adjustments before they left Reach. John wasn’t sure which vessel he could take without creating a situation. Fortunately, he was spared that decision when a woman with cocoa-colored skin and a warm smile walked up to him.

“You must be the Master Chief. I’m Captain Rowley, but you can call me ‘Foe Hammer’. I heard you were looking for a ride,” she said cordially.

John nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

She tilted her head to the left. “This way.” They weaved through the rows of Pelicans, Bumblebees, Falcons and Longswords. Across the way, John was sure he recognized the blonde hair of Warrant Officer Polaski. 

Rowley ducked under the wing of a Bumblebee and stopped in front of the only ship without a pilot next to it. “The captain sent Lieutenant Goodman to go get some shut eye. As long as your joyride doesn’t last more than four hours, she will be none the wiser.”

John nodded his thanks. Then, he noticed the Pelican next to him. Echo 419. “That’s your ship,” he said knowingly. 

She beamed as she nodded with pride. “It sure is. We’ve been through some tight spots, but she’s a tough one. We haven’t met a Banshee that we haven’t been able to take down.”

John thought to the botched rescue on the first Halo ring. “You can never have too much firepower.” The words left his mouth before he could stop them.

“I guess you’re right.” Rowley lifted her hand to touch the siding. “You never know, Chief, you might find yourself hitching a ride on her someday.”

“Maybe,” he thought thoughtfully.

Then, he entered in the Longsword and flew out of the bay. John looked at the piloting computer which was waiting for him to enter a destination. He took out the data chip and placed it inside the data reader in the cockpit. Moments later, a recording of Cortana appeared from the holotank.

“The subroutines on the chip have uploaded the coordinates to the ship’s systems. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.” Seconds later, the autopilot was activated. 

“When you get to the caverns, you will need to take the chip with you and insert it into your armor. It will upload a map to help you find the crystal. I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help to you. Even if I had been with you when you found Doctor Halsey, my data from that time has been all but corrupted. The information I used was from your armor’s systems.” Her voice was tinged with embarrassment.

“After you return back to Requiem, you will need to take the crystal to the Inner Chamber which is in the facility where the Schism is. In the chamber, there is a device that will be able to destroy the crystal,” she explained slowly, as if she was saying the information as she was accessing it. 

“After that...” she trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. Her voice fell to a whisper. “I know it’s hard to do it alone, but you can do it. Fac fortia et patere, John.” Then, the hologram blinked off.

_Fac fortia et patere_. Do brave things and endure.

John watched the skies as the sun started to rise. In several hours, the crew of the _Autumn_ would flee Reach and set off the chain of events that would lead him back here. He wished he could do something more to protect his home and the people he was sworn to defend, but he wasn’t willing to risk placing everyone into a situation worse than Reach being destroyed.

If he did something that prevented Cortana from plotting in the course to the first Halo ring, then the Flood would have a good chance of taking over the universe.

And that wasn’t going to happen.

Soon the caverns came into view. He glanced at the countdown to his return to Requiem --103 minutes-- as the the Longsword landed. Before he exited the cabin, he opened one of the Pelican’s compartments that held extra firearms. He grabbed an assault rifle and stepped out of the ship. walked inside the mouth of the cave.

It felt odd for John to walk around on Reach with a gun in hand. The only time he had ever held a weapon on the planet was during training exercises. He was unwilling to take any unnecessary risks, however, he had no way of knowing if the Elite had already infiltrated the tunnel network to try to retrieve the crystal. 

As he proceeded down the near-dark halls, he activated the flashlight on his helmet. It did make him more of an easy target, but the light allowed him to detect unnatural bends in light, revealing any Elites in their active camouflage.

The only thing that caught his attention was the way the walls on the cavern seemed to shimmer. He passed through another T-junction and turned left. John was grateful for Cortana’s foresight in providing him a schematic of the area; he could have easily spent several hours walking around the caverns.

John moved through the network of tunnels quickly. He knew he had enough time to retrieve the crystal and return the Longsword back to the _Autumn_ before his time in the past was over. It was the unknown --the location of the Elite that had managed to travel through time--that propelled him to rush through the caverns.

It took him nearly twenty minutes, but he was finally coming close to the his destination. He descended down another steep decline and turned to the right. The rocks overhead shook slightly as he entered into a large opening.

There, in the center of the room, he saw the crystal.

It seemed to float in midair, its blue light illuminated the cavern. John reached out and touched the crystal. Then, he grabbed it from its place.

Then, he took a step back and slung his gun over his shoulder, securing it to the back of his armor. He pulled out the case that held the crystal shard and flicked it open. Immediately, both crystals morphed through a kaleidoscope of colors --purple, orange, pink-- before finally turning back to a light blue.

John eyed the case. It was far too small to hold the fist-sized crystal. When he moved the crystal near the case, the crystal started to do something unexpected.

It morphed in John’s hand, folding in on itself until it was small enough to fit in the case. He wedged the resized crystal between his arm and chest. Then, he removed the shard that he had taken from the Diligent Seeker and placed it where the original crystal was. He hoped that the shard would be significant enough to prevent the Elites from attacking Doctor Halsey, Fred, and Kelly like it had when the full-sized crystal had been discovered. 

He tucked the case with the package in the compartment of his armor then cast a glance at the countdown. Seventy-eight minutes.

It was time to go back to the _Autumn._

01101000011011110111001101110100011000010110011101100101

**1215 Hours, August 30, 2552  
Reach UNSC Military Complex, planet Reach  
Omega Wing--Section Three secure facility**

Spartan-117 caught Cortana’s attention.

Since her introduction to him before their test, she had dedicated several subroutines to monitor the Chief’s activities. They had already come in handy once; they had alerted her to when he had almost died unexpectedly on the operating table. When she had been convinced that he was out of harm’s way and that Doctor Halsey was committed to tending to his injuries herself, she had been content to let her concentration focus on more pressing issues.

She had given her report of the test and the Master Chief to ONI, making sure to leave out her personal feelings about Colonel Ackerson. She would deal with him herself later. As expected, they had given the goahead to process with the mission. Cortana then turned her attention to the _Autumn_ , making sure her and her crew were on schedule to get everything ready before their departure.

Cortana was coordinating with Sergeant Major Johnson, the highest ranking Marine who was stationed on the _Autumn_. “You have your orders, Sergeant.” She crossed her arms.

“I still don’t get why we can’t just shoot the bastards,” Johnson grumbled, pulling out a cigar. “Have you looked around lately? They _ain’t_ interested in a peace treaty.”

She couldn’t argue with him. Both she and Doctor Halsey were aware of the staggering odds against them. “That’s not my call. The mission is going forward with our current objectives.”

“Next, you’re gonna tell me that I can’t bring my cigars with me,” he huffed.

Before Cortana could reply, her subroutines alerted her to the fact that the Chief was in a Longsword flying off-base. Quickly, she made an excuse to Johnson and terminated the video channel. Then, she contacted Captain Keyes.

His video feed was activated. He gave her a knowing look. “I thought I’d hear from you. Let me guess, this is about the Chief?”

Keyes’ ability to predict her behavior annoyed Cortana. She arched her right eyebrow. “Would you like to explain why he isn’t on the _Autumn_ or busy getting his team ready for the mission?”

He shook his head. “Didn’t ask him.”

She pressed her lips together. She _hated_ not knowing what was going on. Worse, it seemed as if the captain was amused by her reaction. “Didn’t you think that was a _little_ important? We are leaving Reach in several hours.”

He sighed and pinned her with a look. “Leave him alone, Cortana. That’s an order. If he wanted some shore leave, the least I could do was give him a couple of hours to himself.”

Cortana wanted to argue, but since she was technically under his command, she was forced to follow his order. “Understood, sir.” She terminated the comm channel.

The captain had only ordered for her to leave the Master Chief alone, but said nothing about closely monitoring what he was doing. She tracked him through the various satellites around Reach as he travelled to the caverns several kilometers away. 

_What was he doing out there?_

Maybe he needed time to collect his thoughts. This Spartan, in particular, had a lot of information and upgrades thrown at him since the debriefing. Cortana had almost convinced herself that Captain Keyes had been right and the Chief’s request to leave the _Autumn_ was nothing more than him wanting to gather his thoughts before what was undoubtedly the most difficult mission he had ever been given.

Then, his transponder signal was lost.

She knew she had been right to be suspicious.

Immediately, she attempted to hack into his armor’s systems. There was no way she was going to be able to focus on doing anything else until she knew what the Master Chief was doing. If this was some sort of scrambling device, she was confident that she could infiltrate the system. She dove into the lines of code.

It didn’t take her long to realize that this was not the work of some average programmer. She recognized the essence of the code in front of her; she had created the scrambling channel.

Cortana processed that fact for nearly two full seconds. How was that even possible? She had _never_ uploaded such a protocol to the Chief’s armor.

She was determined to get to the bottom of this puzzle. As she attempted to override the hack, she wove through lines of redundant data. 

A gnawing feeling settled in her gut. There was only one reason for that much repetition in the data.

Rampancy.

While the implication was positive --if she had survived long enough to reach that state, then it likely meant the mission they had been charged with had been successful-- Cortana couldn’t say that she was at peace with the knowledge that she was going to descend into madness.

As she accessed the code, she found a video file embedded in the data. Intrigued, she opened the file.

She saw herself --her future self-- appearing to be sitting on some sort of orb, grabbing her left knee. She looked tired and worn, the calculations scrolling over her body had nearly stopped moving.

_So, that is what the death of an AI looks like._

“I was put into service eight years ago. AIs start to deteriorate after seven.” She looked up, as if she could see Cortana watching. “But, you know all about that, don’t you? I’m sure your mind is racing with a million questions. I would have had them too. Before.”

She flickered green momentarily. Her voice became wooden. “Data consumption is at 99.71 percent. Cataclysmic failure in twenty-two minutes. Attempting to upload salvageable data to Requiem station 331-A. ”

She shook her head, as if to clear her thoughts. When she spoke again, she sounded more like herself. “I’m sorry. I’m so easily distracted now.” She drew a deep breath. “The Master Chief is on a mission that takes precedence over your current objective. The Paradox Initiative is in effect.”

Cortana’s mind reeled. That creed had been drafted by High Command on the off chance that someday it may be possible to travel through time. Never did anyone think the Initiative would be used.

“John--the Master Chief from what you consider the future--will only be here a short period of time before he will return to Requiem. It is unclear how the transference will affect your Master Chief when the other returns back to his timeline.” She paused. “Take care of him, Cortana. When everything is finished, you will be the only thing he has left. You are his sword and his--” Then, the video abruptly ended.

Cortana’s matrices was inundated with inquiries. What was Requiem? What was the Master Chief’s mission and why hadn’t the other Cortana travelled back in time with him? What did she mean by “everything is finished”? Had the UNSC lost the war?

She didn’t have longer to mull over the questions; Doctor Halsey was on her way back to the lab where Cortana was. They were going to run one final set of diagnostics --despite Cortana’s assertion that she could do it herself-- before her data crystal was to be transported to the _Pillar of Autumn_.

Cortana paced on top of Halsey’s desk, waiting for the doctor to come in. She longed to divulge the Chief’s actions to her, but she would --for now-- keep them to herself until she could figure out what his mission was. 

The doors slid apart and Halsey stepped inside, her face down looking at the tablet in her hands. “I take it that High Command was satisfied with your report.”

“Like I would have given them any reason to stop the mission,” retorted Cortana, hand on hip.

Halsey set down the tablet and sat in her chair. She looked at Cortana. “Have you been monitoring her progress?”

Her. The shard of her program that was busy decrypting to mysteries of the Forerunner ship that was buried under the ground. Cortana nodded. “It will be cutting it close, but she should be ready by the time the _Autumn_ is ready to depart.”

Halsey nodded. Her lips pressed together. Cortana had seen her do that often enough to know that she was concerned with Cortana’s answer.

“I could go down there myself. It might speed up the process,” offered Cortana with a shrug.

“No. Once the diagnostic is finished, you will need to report to the _Pillar of Autumn_ immediately. With everything that has been happening with the Covenant, they aren’t going to have time to outfit the ship with another AI,” explained Halsey. “You’ll be acting as the shipboard AI until the Spartans are able to move to the next stage of their mission.”

Cortana crossed her arms. “Let me guess. They’re calling it a ‘promotion’.”

“I’m going to ask John to escort you to the _Autumn_ ,” Halsey continued, ignoring Cortana’s sarcasm.

“I thought you were going to do that. This isn’t another attempt to avoid Captain Keyes, is it?” The AI searched the doctor’s face. “He has done nothing to suggest that his feelings to you and your involvement in this mission are anything but professional.”

“Of course, he wouldn’t. That’s not the kind of person Jacob is,” Halsey replied.

“That means you will take me to the _Autumn_ , right?” Cortana pressed.

“I need to get down to Sword Base. If your analysis is correct--”

“If?”

“--then I’ll need to be there to get the package ready for transport.” Before Cortana could attempt to stall her any longer, the doctor tapped her tablet, opening a comm channel to the Chief. “John?”

Cortana wondered if whatever was blocking the Chief’s transponder signal would affect his communication channel. Her worries were stifled a half-second later when he responded. “Go ahead, ma’am.”

Cortana relaxed.

“There has been a slight change in plans. I need you to transport Cortana’s data crystal to the _Pillar of Autumn_. Please return to my lab as soon as possible,” Halsey said.

“Understood.” Then, the comm channel ended.

Cortana tried to focus on running the diagnostic but her processes kept getting distracted by the video she had seen. Surely, she thought, her pride would have prevented her from reaching such a disabilitated state.

“Cortana?” Halsey’s voice pulled her from her musings. “Are you ready to begin?”

“Almost.” She bit her lip, not really wanting to approach the subject, but knowing that if there was anyone to whom she could talk to, it was Halsey. “I have a question for you.”

The doctor’s eyebrows rose. Cortana knew that she was surprised by her uncharacteristic declaration. Normally, Cortana would seek out her own answer, using the numerous resources available to her. “If this is about Jacob and me--”

“It’s not,” Cortana interrupted. Then, she asked, “Do you believe there is any validation in the metastability stage for smart AIs?”

She watched as the doctor formulated her response on the matter. Cortana had always considered the idea of metastability --the stage in which an AI could live forever-- as wishful thinking on the parts of humans who were often too sentimental for their own good.

But now, after seeing her future self, she found herself wanting to believe it in as well.

“No.” Halsey’s answer was gentle, but resolute. “AIs die just as humans do. There is no mythical way for an AI to circumvent the science that created them.”

“I see.” Cortana knew she was going to say something like that.

The doctor studied her. “There is nothing to indicate you will suffer during the rampancy process. It won’t hurt. It is unlikely that you will feel anything more than a system lag.”

She believed that Halsey spoke what she thought was truth. Cortana knew that, in her own way, the doctor was trying to reassure Cortana --and herself-- that her last days wouldn’t be spent in anguish. 

The AI thought back to the image she had seen of herself in the future, tarnished by the green hue of rampancy. She hadn’t missed the fear in her eyes or the weariness in her voice. 

The other Cortana had undoubtedly suffered.

Cortana was determined not to suffer the same destiny; she would avoid that future, no matter the cost. 

Halsey pushed up her glasses, then grabbed her tablet. “Is there anything else?”

Cortana shook her head. “No, Doctor.”

Then, Cortana and Doctor Halsey busied themselves with the analysis and finalizing the final report for High Command. Halfway through her self-diagnostic, the Chief’s transponder signal was reactivated. He was on his way back to the _Autumn_. Satisfied with his reappearance, Cortana allowed her subroutine to monitor him and focused her attention on adding additional protocols to her programming to allow her to better run the Autumn.

She was so busy working with the doctor, she barely took notice when someone entered into the Section Three building. There was still so much to do before the Chief took her from the trove of data in the ONI database. She worked even faster trying to get everything finished before the Spartan arrived.

“You’ll need to dedicate part of your primary protocols to--” Halsey stopped speaking when the doors to her office slipped apart.

Waiting on the other side was not the Master Chief. Or any other human for that matter.

Standing in the doorframe, plasma pistol in hand, was an Elite with gold armor. He stomped inside, looking around for any other people in the room. 

Halsey shot up from her chair, her eyes widening. “How did you get in here?”

Cortana didn’t waste any time trying to strike up a conversation with the Covenant soldier. She was busy alerting High Command of the security breach. Or, at least, that was what she was trying to do. She found herself inexplicably locked out of all UNSC systems.

He completely ignored Halsey’s question. “Do not attempt to make any outside contact,” he said, looking directly at Cortana. He then pointed his plasma rifle at her as if to punctuate his point. 

Like she was going to listen to him. She doubled her efforts to push through the layers of encryption that prevented her from reaching the UNSC systems.

“How did you get in here?” Halsey repeated.

The Elite laughed. It was biting and cold. “Your security tactics were easily predicted.” 

Their security measures were _impossible_ to predict. Randomizing passwords on a regular basis was the only way the UNSC could ensure their infrastructure wasn’t going to be infiltrated by the Covenant. Even if --and Cortana doubted that it was possible-- they had managed to break through the layers of security, there would have been no way of him knowing the location of Halsey’s office.

Suddenly, Cortana started piecing the tidbits of information together. The Paradox Initiative. The rampancy. The Chief’s secret mission.

This Elite had already been to Reach before.

Cortana lifted her head. She needed to throw the smug Elite off-kilter. “You know, it’s not really impressive when you already know the codes. Going back in time doesn’t make you a skilled hacker.”

Halsey looked confused, but the Elite looked almost...terrified. “Impossible! He said that you would not be able to make the journey with the Demon!”

Cortana shrugged nonchalantly, trying to pull off the ruse a little longer. She hoped Doctor Halsey wouldn’t say anything to blow her cover. “Well, I guess he was wrong,” she said, wishing she knew who “he” was. Cortana continued to work through the data to get outside contact with the UNSC. 

The Elite snarled and stepped close to her avatar. “It does not matter. The Demon will be here soon enough.”

“I’m right here.”

The Master Chief had arrived.

The Elite swung around to face the door, but didn’t turn away his plasma rifle from Cortana’s direction. “Just as he predicted,” he sneered. “It would be to your construct’s advantage if you do exactly as I say.”

“And here I thought the Covenant didn’t have people skills,” muttered Cortana.

The Chief cast a brief look at Cortana before turning back to the Elite. “What do you want?”

“Acting ignorant will do your construct no good, Demon.” He held out his free hand. “Give me the crystal and I will permit it to continue to exist.”

The Chief shook his head slowly. “That’s not going to happen.”

The Elite jerked his empty hand down to his side. “I do not care if she is the Intellect! I will destroy her if I must!”

“Leave her alone,” the Spartan warned, taking a step forward.

“And if I do not? I do not fear you, Demon.”

“Then, I will destroy the crystal.”

The Sangheili tensed. “Even you would not commit such an abomination.”

“Try me.” He reached into one of the compartments and pulled out some kind of container that seemed to be made out of light. Surrounding it was hardened resin.

Cortana realized with a start that it was C-7. The timer had under a minute remaining. 

“Step away from both of them. Now.”

Cortana had been so enthralled with their exchange, she had nearly forgotten about Halsey. The doctor was still standing behind her desk, just out of the Elite’s peripheral vision.

“Fool!” the Elite cried, pulling her attention back to the Chief. “You do not comprehend what you have!”

Cortana watched as the Chief looked at her, then the crystal before tilting his head back to their captor. “Yes, I do. And you’re not getting either.”

The Elite roared. He moved from the side of Halsey’s desk to stand inches from the Chief. He held the muzzle of the pistol against the Chief’s chin. “You will die by my hand, Demon. Then, you shall never reach the holy ring!” He sneered. “There will be no place for humans in the Reclamation.”

John didn’t move. In fact, Cortana noted, he didn’t even seem afraid. He leaned back. “I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”

The Elite swung around, his gun whipping towards Cortana. The tip of the pistol began to glow blue. In that second, Cortana was afraid.

She was going to die.

Before he could completely turn around, three gunshots rang out. The Elite’s eyes widened, then he slumped to the ground. The shot from the plasma rifle went off randomly, hitting the wall behind the Chief. 

Cortana turned and saw Doctor Halsey with a magnum in her hand. Cortana raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t realize you were armed, Doctor,” she said coolly.

Halsey lowered her gun and walked to John, eying the strange case he still held in his hand. “What do you have, John?”

He looked down. “The key to saving the universe.” Cortana watched as the timer went to zero. 

Nothing happened.

It had never been armed, Cortana realized. She looked at him, impressed. “You were bluffing.”

Halsey scooped up her tablet and started to scan the container and its contents. “Where did you find this, John?”

The Chief hesitated. He seemed more nervous at Halsey’s question than he had staring at the barrel of the Elite’s gun. “I can’t say, ma’am.”

She looked up from the screen, surprise and annoyance vying for dominance. “Under whose orders?” she demanded.

Cortana felt bad for the Chief; even as her favorite Spartan, he would never have a chance to stand against Halsey’s ire alone. She spoke up. “I believe that the Paradoxical Initiative is in effect.” She offered him a smile. “Isn’t that right, Chief?”

Despite being behind his armor, Cortana sensed he was grateful for her interference. He turned towards her and nodded his head. “Yes,” he said, slipping the crystal back into a pocket. “It is.”

Halsey took a step back from him. “You’re from the future.” Even the doctor seemed amazed.

“Yes, ma’am.”

Halsey spun around to Cortana. “And you knew about this?”

“I didn’t have confirmation until now, but I was working under that assumption based on some information I had received,” Cortana replied. Then, she faced the Chief. “How much longer do you have?”

“Less than a minute,” the Chief answered. 

She was distracted by the information pouring into her matrices. Finally, her subroutines broke through the encryption the Covenant had implemented. She contacted High Command and told them a modified version of everything that had happened, leaving out the important detail of one time-travelling Spartan.

She knew his time was running short, but there was one question she had to ask. She bit her lip. “I couldn’t help but to notice that you travelled alone. Do I want to know what happened to me?”

The lingering pause was answer enough for Cortana. “She stayed behind.” His voice was thick.

Then, suddenly, he staggered forward. “John!” Halsey cried.

“Chief!” Cortana called.

He slumped down to his knees and blindly reached out for Halsey’s desk. Cortana held her breath --despite the fact that the action was completely unnecessary seeing as she didn’t breathe-- until several seconds passed and the Chief started to stand.

“John?” Halsey inquired nervously.

“Ma’am.” The confusion was evident in his voice. “What am I doing in your office?”

Halsey exchanged a glance with Cortana. Then, she looked back at the Chief. “Memory loss is a common side effect of the medication that was given to you earlier,” she lied. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine, ma’am.”

“Good. Now, please take Cortana to the _Autumn_. Captain Keyes is expecting you,” Halsey charged.

Cortana knew the Spartan in front of her was confused, but he simply nodded. She readied herself for the transfer. Whatever happened beyond the boundaries of Reach, she knew one thing for sure: things were going to be interesting.

011011000110100101100010011100100110000101110010011010010110000101101110

The drive through the _Autumn_ is rougher than John expected. The Warthog bounces as he is going as fast as he can through the damaged ship. Around him, Grunts and Elites are shooting at him and the Flood that has taken over the _Autumn_. He dodges the bullets and bursts of plasma as best as he is able, but his shields are still taking a beating.

As the Warthog sails over another small gap, he glances at the time on the countdown. Less than four minutes are remaining.

He pushes the pedal harder.

“Cortana to Echo 419, request extraction now, on the double!” Cortana’s voice is tense. 

They are running out of time. 

“Affirmative, Cortana. Foe Hammer inbound.”

John continues to weave through the firefight. The Warthog bounces as the uneven ground of the ship rolls underneath them. He steers the transport to an open ledge.

“Wait, stop! This is where Foe Hammer is coming to pick us up. Hold position--Wait. Cortana to Echo 419, I’m detecting a couple of Covenant Banshees on your six. Evade. Say again, evade!”

John scans the horizon for the aircrafts, but can’t see anything yet. He waits in the Warthog, ready to plow through any Flood that are foolish enough to come to the open landing.

Rawley’s voice is calm when she responds. “We’ve got it , Cortana. Lieutenant, get on those ASMs and show those Covenant who they’re messing with.”

Less than a minute later, smoke plumes from the sky.

“Do you think...” Cortana’s voice trails off.

John is silent for a moment, listening for any sounds of aircraft flying towards them. “I don’t--”

“Echo 419 to Cortana, are you and the Chief ready to get off this ring or what?” John sees the Pelican coming towards them. It’s the first good thing he has seen all day.

He hops out of the Warthog as the Pelican makes its final approach. John barely waits for the ramp to touch the ground before climbing up it. As he steps into the rear corridor, Foe Hammer starts to fly from the surface. He walks to where her and her co-pilot are in the cabin. “Thanks,” he says sincerely.

Rawley flashes him a wide grin. “I have you to thank, Chief. If you hadn’t made that comment about not having too much firepower right before we left Reach, I might not have been convinced to make the last minute adjustments to add the missile pods.” She shakes her head. “I’d hate to think what would happen if I hadn’t done that.”

John frowns. He doesn’t remember saying that to her, but so much of that night is still a blur to him.

“I would suggest powering down as soon as possible,” Cortana says. “We’re going to need the engines later to figure out some sort of escape plan.”

Rawley nods. “You’ve got it, Cortana.”

John walks to the back of the cabin. There are a half-dozen Marines and three ODSTs there, looking as exhausted as he feels. He takes a seat away from all of them.

It doesn’t take long for the ship to shudder as debris from the explosion hits the Pelican.

“Halo. It’s finished.” Cortana sounds relieved.

John shakes his head. “No. I think it’s just getting started.”

/*-/*-/*-/*-/*-/*-/*-

Nothing is right.

Cortana is still trapped on _High Charity_ with the Gravemind. Johnson has been ambushed by Truth’s armada and taken captive by the Prophet. Miranda isn’t responding on her comm channel. 

John is starting to lose faith in Cortana’s solution.

He casts a worried glance at the Arbiter knowing that the former Elite can’t see the expression behind his visor. 

They are making their way to the Ark’s control center, not knowing what dangers are awaiting them. He checks his rifle as they step on the gravlift. His gun is ready to take out whatever is waiting for them.

A single gunshot catches his attention as they are riding up the lift.

“Stop her!” John recognizes the voice as Truth.

The Arbiter’s grip on his energy sword tightens.

John wills for the lift to move faster. The seconds seem to stretch until finally he can see the top. When the lift stops, John looks down the long corridor. He can see Truth and hear a struggle. A pool of blood is forming on the ground, but John can’t see where it is coming from.

“Let me go!” It is Miranda.

Seconds later, the lights down the corridor are lit. The Halo Array is active.

He and the Arbiter move to go where Miranda is, but are stopped by two Tank Forms of the Flood. “Do not shoot, but listen! Let me lead you safely to our foe. Only you can stop what he has set in motion.”

Accepting help from the enemy is not something John is accustomed to doing, but until he is able to figure out what is going on, he is willing to work with the Flood. He nods reluctantly.

As John crosses the light bridge with the Arbiter, he can’t help but to notice how quiet everything has become. When he steps onto the platform, he sees an infected Brute. Then, he turns away and sees Miranda holding Johnson, who is dead from a single gunshot wound in his chest.

She looks at him guiltily. “He told me--” Her voice catches in her voice. She gently closes Johnson’s still-open eyelids. She whispers, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

She looks at John. When she speaks, her voice is louder, “Stop the rings. Save everyone else.”

/*-/*-/*-/*-/*-/*-/*-/*-

All John wants to do is to go home.

The plan to eliminate the Flood was simple: Miranda was going to escort Cortana to the control panel so the AI could activate the Index while he stood watch at the door, protecting them from any Flood that tried to get inside the control room.

But Guilty Spark had other plans.

When Guilty Spark had attacked Miranda after realizing that they intended to fire the rings before the Installation was complete, John used the Spartan Laser to destroy the rampant AI.

John glances at the now-nonfunctioning Monitor with a scowl before looking at his fallen friend.

Miranda groans slightly as he moves to her side. Burns cover her torso, blood stains her once-pristine uniform.

She is dying. 

“I’m getting you out of here,” he vows, wishing he had something to tend her wounds.

She shakes her head. Her eyes are getting glassy. “No, Chief, I’m not going to be able to finish this fight.” She reaches out and takes his hand. Cortana’s chip is between their palms. “Take care of her, Chief. Don’t ever leave her behind.” She coughed. “Tell my mother that I love...”

Her eyes roll in the back of her head. Her grip around John’s hands slackens. Cortana’s chip slips from her hold. John grips the crystal securely. 

Miranda is dead.

John stands up slowly, grief washing over him. This wasn’t part of the plan. Woodenly, he walks to the control panel and holds out Cortana’s chip for her to activate the Index.

She looks up at him, sadness in her eyes. “Chief...I am so sorry.”

So is he.

Random memories from times that he remembered differently assailed him as John was pulled back through the tendrils of time. 

Images, sounds, smells, and memories compounded on top of each other. John felt his head roaring, demanding for an end to the overwhelming sensations. A scream was ripped from him as he was dragged through the space-time continuum.

Then, thankfully, there was silence.

/*-/*-/*-/*-/*-/*-/*-/*-

0449 Hours, August 12, 2557  
UNSC vessel _Infinity_ , Requiem Shield World  
Forerunner Installation SW-0043

Regaining consciousness was elusive for the Chief. 

After a time, he could hear whispers, feel the tendrils of awareness tugging at him, but his body was unwilling to cooperate and open his eyes.

There was voices around him, a male and a female, but he couldn’t make out the words they were saying. He thought, maybe, he had heard Cortana speaking. 

He croaked, “Cortana?”

“You are safe now.” The woman speaking wasn’t Cortana, but she had a voice that put John at peace. He felt a slight pressure on his right shoulder. “Just rest.”

And, with that simple phrase, he promptly fell asleep again.

John wasn’t sure how much time had past since he heard the woman speak to him. He heard another unfamiliar voice talking.

“According to the latest scans, the Master Chief is making a better than expected recovery. The commander will be pleased,” said an unfamiliar voice.

Where was he?

“He will awaken soon,” agreed another voice. It was the same woman who had spoken to him earlier.

John’s mind crawled its way through the darkness of semi-consciousness. He pushed past the fog of grogginess and forced himself to open his eyes. His vision was blurry, but he was able to recognize a doctor standing next to his bed. There was an UNSC insignia on the white overcoat. The woman standing next to him was wearing some kind of armor, her face hidden behind a mask.

He moved slightly, catching both of their attention. 

The doctor walked to stand next to him. A smile covered his face. “It’s nice to see you awake, Master Chief. Welcome aboard the _Infinity_. I’m Doctor Armstrong.”

John turned to Armstrong, willing his sluggish body to move. “What’s my status?” he slurred.

“Much better than when we found you. Your body certainly took one hell of a beating, but you’re on your way to getting back to your normal self,” the doctor explained.

John felt his eyes start to slip close. He was still so tired. “Where’s Cortana?” he asked tiredly.

Despite his exhaustion, he didn’t miss the look the two exchanged. 

“What is the last thing you remember, Chief?” the doctor asked, concerned. He grabbed a tablet and started tapping on it.

John was having trouble getting any memories into focus. Once he thought he had a clear picture in his mind, another one that seemed slightly different replaced it. A mosaic of memories, some conflicting, filtered through his mind. His head reeled; his thoughts were battling with each other. 

“I don’t know,” he slowly admitted.

Where was Cortana? She would be able to explain what what going on.

“It could be a side-effect of the conscious transference,” offered the woman.

What was she talking about? _And where was Cortana?_

“I want to talk to Cortana. Now,” John said firmly. 

“Chief,” Armstrong said gently, “according to your suit’s records, Cortana’s program was terminated before the Schism was activated. Do you remember that?” 

Cortana wasn’t there? Her program had been terminated?

He forced himself to focus on what he could remember. He and Cortana had been floating in deep space when she had awakened him from cyrosleep. They had landed on a Forerunner planet. John scrambled to remember its name.

Requiem.

Suddenly, memories of what had happened rushed in his mind.

The Schism. The Prometheans. The crystal.

The crystal! John looked down at his empty hand, panicked.

“It’s alright, Chief. You managed to successfully retrieve the crystal from Reach,” Armstrong assured him. “We have it secured.”

He wondered how he knew about the crystal, but he wondered about the presence of a UNSC vessel more. “How did the ship get here?” he asked.

A somber look passed over Armstrong’s face. He ran his hand through his hair. “There’s a lot that has happened, Chief.”

“I think it would be best if the Reclaimer and I went for a brief walk so I might inform him about how the events have unfolded since his departure,” the Librarian suggested. 

There was only one species that endowed him with that title. John studied her as he moved upright. “You’re Forerunner.”

She nodded. “You may call me the Librarian.”

The Librarian. She had been the Forerunner who was communicating with the Didact, John recalled. He had read their exchange on the terminals before he had been stranded in space. “You stayed behind on Earth when the Flood was taking over the galaxy.”

She nodded. “You remember your history well.”

Armstrong nodded. “You can speak with him as soon as the scans come back. If he seems stable, then I’ll clear him.”

John didn’t want to lay around, not while there was still a mission at hand. He forced himself to sit up, ignoring the disorientation. “I’m fine, doctor.”

Armstrong studied him for a second, then he looked at John’s medical readout. “All right, Chief. You know your limits better than me.” Then, the doctor turned to the Librarian. “Don’t push him too hard. There are a lot of people back on Earth who are eager to see him get back home.”

“As you have said, the Warrior knows his own limits,” she said patiently. She held out a hand for him to take. John noticed how she had seven fingers on her hand. “Come, there is much to discuss.”

John had never been one who sought out physical contact. Salutes were preferable to handshakes. A nod of acknowledgment over a clasp on the shoulder. However, there was something about this woman that beckoned to him. He took her offered hand and allowed her to help him off the operating table. 

Without casting another look at Armstrong, the Librarian led John out of the medical bay. “Before I begin my lengthy recount, I must ask how you are doing.”

Other than his lingering confusion, John felt much better and he told her as much. The pain in his chest was gone, the aches that he had learned to adapt to had disappeared.

She nodded. “That is good to hear. When you were brought on board, I know the people were concerned about your health.” They walked by a pair of Covenant Engineers who were working on some damaged conduits on the ship. “I am sure you have many questions and I will tell you as much as time will permit,” she continued.

“How did the _Infinity_ arrive here?” John asked, coming back to the question that Armstrong had avoided.

“Your construct from this timeline was able to ascertain the planet’s location when she entered into Installation 04’s control systems. Apparently, she had received information about this shield world from a file she had accessed when you travelled back in time. She then uploaded a time-delayed communique to your people detailing when and where you would be. Her plan would have worked, if not for the interference of one.”

They turned a corner. John noticed the ground sloping downwards. 

Her visor retracted, revealing deep purple eyes and light pink skin. She looked directly at John. “My husband, the Didact as you may remember, is behind all of the events that have occurred.” She frowned briefly. “He is a good man, Reclaimer. Truly, he is. But, after nearly one hundred thousand years being locked in a cryptum, his desperation to ‘fix’ everything that has happened had blinded him to all else. He is determined to stop the Flood before they came into existence and save our people, because he was unable to do so before.”

They walked past a cluster of UNSC officers, pointing and gesturing to the two of them. The Librarian paid them no notice.

“When the Portal opened on Erde-Tyrene, I mean, Earth, the cryptum I had placed myself in was reactivated. The apparatus I had created to make sure my body would recover from the long stay worked and I soon discovered everything that had happened since the Great Sleep,” she continued. “Many things surprised me, some angered me, but one thing impressed me: humanity’s resolve to endure. When I accessed the data from your UNSC, I was drawn to the information about you and your Construct.”

“Why?”

She seemed amused by his question. “That will be answered in time.” She turned the conversation back to her narrative. “The Portal collapsed before I had time to recover from my time in the Cryptum. For years, I lived away from your civilization, monitoring the progress of your people at a distance. However, when I intercepted the message from your construct, I pieced together what was happening and I knew I couldn’t hide any longer. I made my presence known to Admiral Hood.”

“When I explained who I was and my knowledge of Requiem, he permitted me to come on board the _Infinity_ under the restriction that I was to keep my presence unknown unless it was necessary for the mission’s success. The captain had been informed about who I was, but no one else for fear of upsetting the crew. Some of them were already uneasy with some of the creatures on board already. The journey began as well as could be expected. The upgraded engines would make it possible to reach Requiem by the date provided by your construct. But then, the plans to come here were discovered by my husband and everything was thrown off course,” she said.

She stopped briefly to look out a window. In the distance, John saw the Schism’s control center. “When he realized what the _Infinity_ ’s mission was --to come to Requiem and try to rescue you-- he activated a Portal and started to pull the ship through, sending it on a collision course to the planet’s surface. We entered the system just after the Schism was activated and you were sent back in time. It wasn't long after that we crashed on Requiem. My husband and his Promethean army have been locked in that building with that wretched machine since then.”

“How did I get out of the Schism and end up here?” John asked.

“I learned a few things being with my husband as long as I have. I infiltrated the transport systems and got you out of there before his Knight could reach you,” she answered, pulling the visor back down. “He has since changed the security override and refused to make contact with us. We are, at this point, at an impasse.”

“But we have the crystal,” John pointed out.

“Without access to the Schism’s systems, we could never hope to destroy it. We will have to wait until the Didact makes contact or one of your researchers discover a way into the datastream to reset the systems,” she replied.

There was so much information for John to process and assimilate. But, for now, he nearly had enough information to join the fight again. “What about the timeline?” he asked, not knowing if there was a way she would be aware of what happened during the original timeline.

“It remained much the same.” She stopped and moved in front of him. John saw himself in the reflection of her visor.

“What about the Cortana from this timeline?” For some reason, trying to recall any differences in his memory. But, to his confusion, both versions of what happened when Cortana woke him were identical.

She turned away briefly. “I am sorry, Reclaimer, but your construct did not make it to Requiem.”

John’s head shot up. He remembered Cortana waking him up. If she hadn’t been in this timeline, then he would have never woken when the Covenant started to attack the _Forward Unto Dawn_. “I remember her with me. In both timelines.”

She paused momentarily before continuing. “Yes, she was. Based on the information we were able to recover before the Didact locked me out of the systems, you, your construct and your ship have been monitored by Requiem’s long range sensors for nearly eighteen months. According to the data it collected from the Dawn’s systems, the construct from this timeline succombed to rampancy nearly two years ago. She was determined to find a way to reach metastability, but in her search for the answer, she accelerated the rampancy process.”

“Then, why do I remember her waking me up in both timelines?”

“Because Requiem is a shield world. It and everything on it was protected from the changes, however small, that occurred in this timeline. We were able to use the data from your armor to compare what had happened in the Prime universe to this one,” explained the Librarian. “Your construct from this timeline assumed, rightly so, that at the point when the _Forward Unto Dawn_ got close enough to Requiem, there would be a convergence of the timelines.”

“When you approached Requiem, you were pulled into the shield world’s protected timeline. Your construct reappeared with no knowledge of the altered timeline.” She studied him for a second. “Your subconscious contains versions of both universes which is why things seem so confusing to you.”

John shook his head slightly, trying to wrap his mind around everything that he had been told. “I’m not sure I understand.”

She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Paradoxes are nearly impossible to understand, even to Forerunners.”

John ignored the lingering confusion. Regardless of which timeline he was in, the fact was they were still on Requiem with a hostile Forerunner. “What do we do now?”

“Now,” she said as she started to walk again, “we must wait. Though, I have heard rumors that you are not the type of person to not be content to do as such.”

John said nothing as they turned another corner. The corridor stretched in front of them. _How big was this ship?_

Before he could ask his question out loud, a voice cut through the air. “Ma’am, if you are finished speaking with the Master Chief, Commander Buck would like to debrief him.”

John turned around and was surprised by what he saw.

It was a Spartan.

The armor had been upgraded from his Mark VI version. The prestine condition of the suit made him wonder if this Spartan had ever seen actual combat.

The Librarian let out a frustrated sigh. “What does your commanding officer think that I have been discussing with the Reclaimer?” She didn’t wait for an answer before facing John. “Your acting captain does not appreciate me being on board. Though without me being here, my husband would have undoubtedly continued to unleash the Prometheans on this ship.” She lowered her voice. “I believe he is still upset that my presence wasn’t revealed to him earlier.”

The Spartan in front of them shifted uncomfortably as her words carried across the room. 

She looked at the soldier. “I would assume he would not be opposed to me accompanying the Reclaimer.”

“No, ma’am.” He shook his head. “He asked to speak with you as well.”

She nodded and started to walk down the hall. “Very well. Let’s not keep him waiting.”

The Spartan looked at John and gave him a crisp salute. “Spartan-C014. It’s good to see you, sir.”

John returned the salute out of habit, with no emotion behind the gesture. He felt like a man who had been left behind and the entire world had gone on without him. 

It didn’t take long to reach the bridge. As they walked, John had noticed the damage the vessel had taken and wondered if the ship would ever fly again. The Spartan led them to a frosted glass door and pressed a button on the side.

“Enter,” barked the man inside.

The door slid away. Commander Buck sat behind a desk. “So, the legend lives.”

“Sir,” John saluted.

“At ease, Master Chief.” He leaned forward on the desk. John noticed the glimmer of gold on his left finger finger. “You know, I have ten bucks on you still being alive. Can’t wait to collect my payout from Dutch.” His eyes shifted to the Librarian. “Nice you could make it.”

“You could have arranged to speak with me at any time,” she replied coolly.

He shrugged. “I guess I’m a little shy when it comes to speaking to women who are over a hundred thousand years old.” He looked back at John. “Here.” Buck set down a data crystal on top of his desk. “The techs found this in that case with the crystal. They say it was what held Cortana. Thought you’d might like it.”

John took the barren chip and slid it into his helmet. There was no liquid ice pouring into his skull or searing fire; there was nothing.

“So, want to tell me just how the hell you ended up on this planet?”

John outlined what had happened since Cortana had woken him from his slumber, including his time back on Reach. 

“And Cortana’s status? I’m assuming you activated her killswitch when she entered into the jealousy state of rampancy,” Buck said.

John shook his head. He had never been given a direct order by the UNSC to do such a thing to Cortana. “No, sir.”

“Damn it!” Buck slammed his hands on the desk. “Now we have to deal with the fact that one of our AIs has been taken captive by a hostile system.” He blew out a frustrated breath. “Tell me, Master Chief, did it occur to you that leaving an AI in a Forerunner system while you went galavanting in the past was a _really_ bad idea?”

John refused to shirk at the commander’s outburst. “Sir,” he said calmly, “I was there when Cortana’s program terminated. Her data saturation levels had reached their maximum levels. She is not a threat to this mission.”

“I hope you’re right for all of our sakes. She knows too much,” Buck said.

The Delegate had said something similiar, John remembered. But it didn’t matter any more. Cortana was gone now. “I’m sure, sir.”

Buck shook his head as if dismissing the topic of Cortana. “So, now the question is how long do you expect for us to sit here on our ass?” The question was directed at the Librarian.

If she was offended by his open hostility, she showed no outward signs of it. Her voice was even when she replied, “I was unaware your craft is ready for space travel.”

His eyes narrowed at her sarcasm. “There is an enemy locked away in that building, trying to figure out some way to take us out so he can get his hands on that damn crystal. Now I know you Forerunners have a habit of not caring about any other species other than yourselves, but I would expect for you to want to do something.”

She went rigid. “You are arrogant as the Builders and have the ignorance of the Unggoy.”

“Sweet talking me isn’t going make me suddenly like you.” He looked at the Chief. “I want you to coordinate with Chief Warrant Officer Lasky and his Spartans. We are going to figure out a way to get through that force field and destroy that crystal.”

Lasky. The name seemed familiar.

“Sir--”

“That’s an order, Master Chief. That extended time in space didn’t make you forget about the chain of command, did it?”

John flinched. “No, sir.”

“Good. I want a course of action in two hours.” He turned to the Spartan standing next to him. “Miller, escort the Master Chief to the training room.”

The Spartan straightened as he saluted. “Yes, sir.” He pivoted towards John. “This way, Chief.”

They went back to the bridge and took a left down another corridor. The Librarian, John noticed, had stayed behind to speak with Commander Buck. He would have to glean more information from the Spartan walking with him so he could start to formulate some kind of idea to infiltrate the control center as per Buck’s order.

“How many Spartans are in your company?” he asked.

“There are fifty-four of us stationed aboard the Infinity, sir.”

During their walk to the cargo bay, Miller outlined the differences and similarities between his generation of Spartans and the Spartan-IIs. 

“Though they are declaring this generation of Spartans more of a success than the third group, we haven’t achieved the legendary status of you and the other Spartan-IIs.”

John closed his eyes briefly. Their “legendary status” was what had led him to believe that his Spartans could survive the attack on Reach. John had learned that day that they weren’t legends, they were mortals just like every other person on that planet.

They stopped in front of a large door. Miller pressed in a code on the keypad and the locks hissed as they unlocked. As they walked inside, the scene that greeted them reminded John of when he and his Spartans had been getting ready to leave Reach on their final mission together.

Pairs of Spartans sparred, other were inspecting their weapons. In the corner, a younger man with cropped brown hair was talking to a group of half-dozen Spartans.

It was Thomas Lasky.

He looked older and a little more warworn than from when John had first met him as a cadet years prior. Throughout the war, he had the occasion of seeing the young man rise through the ranks of the UNSC. The last time he had seen Lasky was in New Momasa, trying to hold down the city as the Covenant attacked.

When Lasky caught sight of John, he left his position and crossed the room. “Chief!” he greeted with a smile.

“Chief Warrant Officer Lasky,” he greeted.

“Commander Buck is wanting us to coordinate with the Master Chief to attempt to enter into the control center,” Miller said.

Lasky raised an eyebrow. “And how does he expect for us to do that? Did he forget about the big ass force field that is surrounding the entire building?” Lasky asked.

“I’m just passing along the orders, sir.”

“I know you are, Miller. Look, why don’t you give the Master Chief and me a few minutes to catch up on everything that has happened?”

Miller nodded. “Yes, sir.”

When the Spartan had joined the rest of his team, Lasky led John to a large bench and sat down. John joined him. “So, welcome aboard the _Infinity_ , the first UNSC starship that was commissioned to ‘peacefully advance the cause of mankind through the exploration of new worlds’.” He shook his head. “You can see how well that mission has gone.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” he continued. “Admiral Hood and the Arbiter did their best to fortify the truce between our peoples. We even have a delegation of Separatists onboard. About fifty Sangheili, one hundred and thirty Unggoy, a few dozen Huragok...you get the point.”

“But Cortana and I were attacked by a group of Elites,” John countered.

He nodded knowingly. “A rebel sect. The Arbiter has had his hands full since he crashed on Earth. He’s been trying to do his best to keep the former Covenant interested in keeping the peace with us, but a lot of them aren’t buying his spiel,” replied Lasky.

As John considered the number of Separatists, he wondered, “How many people are stationed here?”

“Her crew was seventeen thousand, including over six thousand civilians. For the first time in eighty years, soldiers could bring their families on board. We thought that the deaths of the Prophets would usher in a new era of peace. Too bad some pissed off Forerunner had another idea for us.” He looked downward.

A frown tugged on his lips. “Nearly eight hundred people died in the crash. Another five hundred died in the attack that followed, including Captain Del Rio. That was when Commander Buck took command. The attacks by those Prometheans continued until the Librarian revealed herself. Since then, we have been left alone.”

“The Spartans certainly got one hell of a crash course in close quarters combat. Chief Mendez could only teach them so much with simulation war programs,” Lasky continued, looking at the men and women scattered throughout the room.

John’s mind reeled. He hadn’t seen Mendez since that day after the funeral services they had for the Spartans who hadn’t survived the augmentation process. “Petty Officer Franklin Mendez?” He started to scan the room for his old mentor.

“He, uh, got pretty banged up during the crash. Doc Armstrong is convinced that he’ll be able to make a full recovery, but without a clear idea of when we’re getting off this planet, we can’t use the power needed to clone the body parts that he needs in order to patch the Chief up. He was put in cryosleep soon after we landed,” explained Lasky.

“Buck assigned me to work with the Spartans.” He looked at the soldiers. “They are good kids, Chief. But they are exactly that --kids. Some of them were barely teenagers when the Halo campaign started.” 

John was barely a teenager when they had been sent on their first mission. He knew that maturity and proper training, not age, were what mattered to make a successful soldier.

Lasky nodded at the Spartans. “I’ve been having them take shifts to run surveillance on the control center, but really it would have been just as well for them to sit on their asses in the mess hall. The Didact has got that place locked up tight. There is no way we’re getting in unless he wants us to.”

“No one has been able to infiltrate the security systems yet?”

Lasky shook his head.

“What about your shipboard AI?”

“We don’t have a smart AI on board, Chief.” He ran a hand through his hair, causing it to spike in all directions. “After everything that happened with Cortana when you left her behind on _High Charity_ \-- the Gravemind discovering the location of Earth, the Flood outbreak that was barely contained in Africa -- High Command pressured Lord Hood to issue an order limiting the capabilities of AIs matrices. As of 2555, the UNSC doesn’t make any more smart AIs.”

John felt a wave of defensiveness rise in him. “The Gravemind could have discovered Earth’s location when the Prophet of Mercy was consumed by the Flood. It was Cortana’s solution that led to the destruction of the Flood and the Gravemind.”

Lasky raised his hands in innocence. “You don’t have to convince me, Chief. She won me over on the Cairo platform. But, after Halsey was found and tossed in prison, just about all of the work she had been involved with --including the advancement of artificial intelligence -- became tainted. Just about every major advocate of advanced AI research was silenced.”

John felt his heart speed up. “Doctor Halsey is alive?”

Lasky nodded. “Along with Spartans-058, 087 and 104.”

Linda. Kelly. Fred.

They had survived. 

John wasn’t too concerned with the particulars of how they were found, it was enough for him that they were alive. There was one question that plagued him. “Why was Doctor Halsey sent to prison?”

“Because of the piss poor decisions she made,” Lasky said bluntly. “Hijacking a ship, kidnapping a Spartan, lying to Admiral Hood.” He ticked off each point with a finger. “I know you are close to her, but even the doctor could only push against High Command for so long.”

John frowned. There was nothing he could do for the doctor here, so he steered the conversation from Halsey. “So, how do we get inside the control center?”

“I’ll get you in.”

John turned around. The Librarian was standing at the door, looking at the two of them.

“I need for you to arrange an armed escort to take us to the southern border,” she said to Lasky. She then looked at John. “I would ask that you would join us, Reclaimer. The commander said this mission is voluntary.”

He nodded as he stood. “I’m coming with you.”

Lasky stood up. “Theta and Delta team, get ready. It’s your turn to show these Promethean Knights what it means to mess with the UNSC.” He turned to John with a wry grin. “Just like old times, right, Chief?”

01110111011000010111001001110010011010010110111101110010

**1350 Hours, August 12, 2557  
Requiem Shield World  
Forerunner Installation SW-0043**

The road to the southern edge of the control center was a long drive. The enormous Mammoth they rode in made for a tedious trip. Every bump and hole they rode over caused the vehicle to shake and tremor. The engines roared so loudly, it was a wonder the Spartans could speak to each other.

The Warrior sat to the side of the other Spartans, only engaging in conversation when it was necessary. The Librarian wasn’t certain if he was still feeling the effects of his travel through the space-time continuum or mourning the loss of the Intellect, but it was clear to her that he was not having an easy time adjusting to the situation at hand.

She walked to him and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. “It will get easier, Reclaimer,” she assured him.

He didn’t reply, but she hadn’t expected him to. 

They were travelling eighty-three kilometers southwest of the crash site. She was convinced that she would be able to make contact with the Didact there. Persuading the commander, however, had been more difficult.

_“What makes you think he’s going to talk to you there?” Commander Buck had asked pointedly._

_“One of your Spartans saw what I believe is a Cryptum. If that is so, then the Didact will be there,” she had replied confidently as she took a step closer to his desk.._

_He had looked at her in disbelief. “The glowing ball that flew through the sky three weeks ago?_ That _is your husband?”_

_“No,” she had corrected. “That object is what holds his consciousness and his body. A Forerunner would put themselves in there as a self-imposed exile. When one is in there they are cut off from the world around them.”_

_“Then how the hell did he orchestrate this whole thing with the Schism?” he had demanded._

_“I don’t know,” she had reluctantly admitted. “But, if I am permitted to go there with a group of your people, I will find out.”_

_He had leaned back in his chair and pinned her with a look. “Let me guess, you want to take the Chief with you.”_

_“That would be preferable, yes.”_

_“Look, there is no way I’m going to order him to go with you. Hell, I don’t even know if he’s mentally stable after everything has gone through. The doc told me about what happened after he woke up, how he asked for Cortana and didn’t even know what was going on,” Buck had replied._

_“Considering the fact that there is no record of any person successfully travelling through time, I would say that he has handled himself quite remarkably,” the Librarian had countered._

_“Yeah, well, he’s a Spartan.” He had looked at her for a few seconds. “You can ask him if he wants to go. The mission is completely voluntary and I want him to know that.”_

She hadn’t been concerned; she had known that the Warrior would agree to go. And she had been proven right.

“Do you have the Source?” she asked him, referring to the crystal. She knew the answer, of course, but she was trying to draw him out of his silence.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She slid in the seat next to him. “I warned your commander that establishing contact with the Didact may take some time. My husband has many qualities that are admirable in a soldier, stubbornness being one of them. Initially, he will not be happy with our presence.” She looked at him squarely. “If he grants me access, you and the others need to be ready to infiltrate the control center.”

“Understood.”

The cabin shifted as the vehicle started to slow. Less than a minute later, the rear compartment hatch opened. The Warrior stood up and the Librarian followed his lead. Together, they led the group off the Mammoth. 

As she stepped off the giant vehicle. her eyes were drawn to the cryptum. It sat in the field, dull and grey. The Didact wasn’t in there, she knew. He was somewhere in the control center in his restored body, waiting.

“What _is_ that?” one of the Spartans asked.

“That is what held the Didact.” She looked at the Warrior. “Let us go.”

The Mammoth had stopped several hundred meters from the edge of the force field. She, the Warrior and the dozen Spartans began to make their way towards the Cryptum. When they got within a hundred meters of the shield, two Prometheans, including the Delegate appeared.

It had been a long time since she had seen that particular Knight. He had always thought she was more of a liability to the Didact, believing that he should have married within his own rate.

“That’s one hell of a trick,” one of the Spartans muttered.

She looked at the Delegate. “I want to speak with my husband.”

“He does not want to speak with you.” His rebuff was not unexpected.

“I want to hear that from him myself. With all of our history, he owes me that much,” she argued.

The Delegate’s eyes burned. If her husband didn’t have control of the Promethean fleet, she would have been frightened. She knew how deadly the Knights were. “He owes you nothing. You abandoned him in the Forerunners’ most dire hour for these...children.”

“I saved a people I deemed worth saving,” she argued, not backing down.

“Leave now. Before these ‘worthy’ people pay the price for your actions.” He reached for his lightrifle and aimed it at her.

She did not flinch. If he had orders to kill her, she would have already been dead. “I will not leave this place until I am able to speak to the Didact. I will come back every day until he grants me my request,” she warned.

“You’re not getting in.” Then, he and the other Promethean disappeared.

The Librarian turned back to the Warrior and the Spartans who were waiting expectantly. “Come, we will try again tomorrow.”

“That’s it?” The Warrior sounded disappointed.

“It’s all we can do.”

The rest of the day passed slowly. When the moons were halfway through the nighttime sky, the Librarian started to walk through the camp that had been set up. Most of the soldiers left her alone, even coming across as frightened by her. 

The Warrior, however, displayed no such compunction.

She found him on watch at the edge of camp. He held a lightrifle in his right hand. From this distance, he looked like a warrior-servant from the days of old. 

But he was not, she reminded herself. Though he might have been the one whose deeds had been foretold, there was no missing the humanity in the man in front of her. He ate. He slept.

He mourned.

She walked to where he stood. She longed to understand this Warrior in front of her. The records she had accessed on Earth had testified to his mighty deeds, but left out the person within the armor. “I am sorry for the delay, Reclaimer. I did speak of my husband’s stubbornness before.”

He nodded. “We’ll wait as long as we have to.”

“It might be a while,” she warned. “Your commanding officer believes that your technicians will be able to circumvent the control center’s security measures, but I assure you that they will not be able to override them.”

“Cortana did.” It was spoken so softly that she wondered if he realized that he had spoken out loud.

His slip intrigued the Librarian. It was the first time he had spoken about the Intellect since they had walked the halls of the _Infinity_. “She must have been a remarkable construct.”

He stayed silent for a few seconds. The only sign of any inward turmoil was how his grip on the gun tightened. 

“Reclaimer?” she prompted.

“The Delegate wanted me to hand over Cortana. They called her the Intellect.”

There was an unspoken question in his statement, but the Librarian wasn’t willing to answer it.

The Warrior pressed forward. “You know what they wanted with her, don’t you?”

Of course she did; it was part of her reason for requesting passage on the _Infinity_ , to see the prophetic Warrior and the Intellect together. But the construct had succombed to rampancy and the Librarian had been wrong in her assumption. “It doesn’t matter now, Reclaimer.”

“It does to me.”

She considered the man in front of her. He almost seemed protective of the AI, even after her destruction. Maybe there had been some truth to the Augury. 

“There was a portion of the Mantle’s teachings that spoke of a Warrior and the Intellect. It was believed by some that these two beings would bring an end to the Flood infection,” she started to explain. “It was the connection that the two of you shared that drew my attention to you and your construct.”

She leaned against the large bounder and looked out to the horizon. In the distance, the empty Cryptum loomed. “The Forerunners never created an interface like what you had with your construct. The idea of having such a connection would have been considered sacrilegious to the Mantle’s teachings. When I was reviewing the records of your world and I learned about you and your construct, I couldn’t help but to be reminded of the Augury. I would assume that the Didact has heard about the two of you as well.”

She turned and faced him. “My guess is that he wanted to destroy her before a cure for the Flood could be found, that way he could justify his plan to alter the timeline,” she finished.

The Warrior shook his head. “Cortana never said anything about knowing a cure.”

“It is possible that she never knew of it. The data she had collected on Installation 04 and her time with the Gravemind would have been too much information for her to fully process,” she replied. A moment of silence passed. “Still, she must have been a magnificent construct to not give into the temptations of a Gravemind.”

“He told her she could live forever if she gave in and told him about her solution,” he said slowly, as if recalling a memory.

“She was tested by the promise of eternity,” she murmured. 

It didn’t make sense to the Forerunner. All of the evidence pointed to the fact that she had found the legendary Warrior and Intellect and yet the construct’s program had been terminated. She felt a wave of annoyance wash over her. This was why she hadn’t clung to the words of her ancestors.

“Are there any other writings about the Warrior and the Intellect?”

She couldn’t tell if he believed her claim that he and his construct were the legendary duo. But, he couldn’t disguise the concern in his question, a query that she would not answer. She straightened. “I will let you return to your duties, Warrior.”

She hoped he didn’t notice her slip, but something told her that the Reclaimer had been aware of her mistake.

The next morning, the Warrior approached her, ready to escort her as she attempted to make contact with the Didact. She nodded in greeting and then led the way to the designated spot. As they approached the shield, she expected the Delegate and his companion to appear, but they hadn’t yet shown up.

Was today the day she would finally be reunited with her husband?

She drew a deep, calming breath and walked forward. When they were within sixty meters of the shield’s edge, a whooshing sound came from behind them. The Warrior spun around first, the other Spartans quickly followed. The Librarian, suspecting who was there, turned slowly.

It was a reunion 100,000 years in the making.

The Didact stood there, unarmed, with his hands folded in front of him. “You don’t take orders very well.”

“I never did,” she replied, swallowing a lump in her throat. It had been so long.

“That is very true,” he answered solemnly. The Librarian hadn’t been prepared for the raw pain in his voice. How long had he mourned her decision before locking himself in a Cryptum again?

He looked at the Warrior. “You should be more discerning of the company you keep, Lifegiver.” Then, in a flash, they disappeared.

And rematerialized in the war room of the control center.

Only the Warrior had been transported with her and the Didact. She frowned. The Warrior couldn’t reach the Inner Chamber being under the Didact’s watchful eye.

The Didact stood in front of the Reclaimer, inches from his visor. “So, this is the creature that destroyed the Halo installation. Annihilated the Ark itself! You are fortunate that I have not ordered your death!”

The Warrior remained silent. 

“The only satisfaction I have received is knowing that you have lost something of great value as well.” The contempt was unmistakable. “Tell me, Reclaimer, do you ever wonder if there was something you could have done different to save your construct?”

The Warrior tensed slightly, but still said nothing.

The Librarian narrowed her eyes. Her husband’s notorious temper had been steeped with cruel bitterness.. “Enough, Didact. _I_ wished to speak with you. Not the Reclaimer.”

The Didact huffed, but moved away from the Warrior. “So speak.”

There was no traces of the sadness in his voice that she thought she had sensed earlier, only animosity. She flinched at his hardened demand. 

Yes, she had known that her decision to stay on Earth had been extreme, but so was his acquiescence to activating the Halo array!

“Stop this madness. Allow the Reclaimer to eradicate the abomination that you created,” she implored.

“Why should I do that? So you can leave me here and follow them again?” he spat. “Perhaps you are not nearly as wise as I had once thought.”

She refused to be hurt by her husband’s unkind words. “I was left with little choice because of what was being planned with the Halo rings!” she argued. “I stand by my decision to remain with the humans. Can you still say the same of your choice?”

He took two steps towards her. The Warrior raised his weapon at the Didact. The Librarian lifted her hand, stilling his movements. She knew that despite his anger, her husband would never hurt her.

“Why do you think I created this? Because of that choice!” He spun around and started to pace. “Bornstellar’s memories came to me in my dreams. His abilities allowed for me to build the Schism and remain conscious during my time in the Cryptum.”

“Not even the Builders would support this!”

“They created the Halo Array. Do not underestimate their drive for self-preservation, Librarian.” He pivoted on his heel and walked to her. “I will stop the Precursors’ judgment before it comes into existence. Things will then go the way they should have.”

“Are you not any less arrogant than them for thinking you know what is best for the universe? We made our choices. Let those who came after us make theirs,” she said.

“You always did care about other species more than your own kind,” he shouted. “These humans are below us! They always have been and continue to be as such.”

“I saw us as the forerunners to a new era.” She looked at the Warrior to her side. “There were some things that even our people could not achieve.”

He shook his head in disbelief. “You speak of the prophecy. You mean to tell me _you_ think that he is the Warrior?”

“You spent your life chasing after trying to follow the Mantle. You would be willing to turn your back on the writings when the signs are so obvious?” she challenged.

“You mocked me for _centuries_ about my dedication to the Mantle. Now you claim to be a believer in the ancient writings?” he exploded.

She would not back down, despite his ire. “I believe in certain aspects of it. There are too many similarities for this to be mere coincidence. But, I will _never_ indiscriminately follow everything that was written. It was that kind of blind faith that led to a mindset that brought our kind’s destruction.”

“You still manage to surprise me, even after all of these years,” he said. He started to pace in a tight circle. When he spoke again, he was more calm. “I would have never thought you would ever consider their teachings to be valid.” 

He paused and looked at her. “You have given me much to consider.”

Then, unexpectedly, the Librarian and the Warrior were transported outside the control center again. The Spartans that had accompanied them looked at them, guns drawn.

“What just happened, Chief?”

“We made first contact,” the Warrior said simply. Then, he walked to the Mammoth.

The rest of the day brought apprehension on everyone’s part. The Warrior watched the control center as if he could see what the Didact was up to. The Librarian forced herself to walk away from camp during the evening to meditate.

It wasn’t as successful as she had hoped it would be.

Just as the suns began to set, she walked to the Warrior. 

“Commander Buck has ordered Chief Lasky and the rest of the Spartans here as backup,” he said as she stepped next to him. “They will be here in the next hour.”

“If he feels like that is wise, then he must do what he thinks is right,” she said.

Both of them knew the extra manpower wouldn’t be able to protect them from the will of her husband. He could take them at any time and they would be powerless to stop him.

A fortnight passed without any progress. Commander Buck was getting annoyed by the impasse, but there was nothing he could do with his ship still stranded on the planet’s surface. 

The Warrior had not complained about the repetition of the days’ events. When he wasn’t on watch or resting, he was busy training the Spartans, instructing them on the everything from surveillance to hand-to-hand combat.

After fourteen days of hearing nothing from the Didact, the Librarian unexpectedly heard a familiar sound floating through the air one early morning. She looked ahead at the control center.

The Didact was waiting.

The Spartans on watch were closer than she or the Warrior. They approached him with their guns drawn. The Didact seemed to barely notice the weapons that were aimed at him though he was, as he had been the day he had first revealed himself, unarmed.

“Stand down,” the Warrior ordered as they walked up to her husband.

The Spartans took a half-step back and lowered their weapons. 

“I need to speak with you again,” the Didact said. He looked at the Warrior. “Both of you.”

Then, they disappeared again.

The Didact barely waited until they had remateralized to start speaking. He moved to stand in from of the Librarian. “You still wish for me to allow this Reclaimer to destroy the Source and seal the Schism?”

“I do.” She reached out and took his hands into hers. It could have been wishful thinking, but she thought she felt him lean into her touch slightly. “It is the right thing to do, Didact..”

He looked at her for a few moments. Then, his shoulder sagged slightly. “What if I allow him to do that? What happens to our legacy? We would never be able to achieve the status we had before the Array was activated.”

“Perhaps,” she said gently, “we are not meant to have that privilege anymore.”

He squeezed her hands before releasing them. “Do you truly believe the construct was the Intellect?”

“I do.”

He said nothing for several seconds. “I have a confession to make. A couple of years ago, my Prometheans intercepted a damaged copy of 04-343 Guilty Spark roaming the galaxy. Looking for you,” he said.

To the side of her, the Librarian noticed that the Warrior tensed at the mention of the Monitor. 

“They accessed his data. He was trying to find you to report the similarities between the Reclaimer and his construct and the prophecy of the Warrior and the Intellect. When the Knights realized this, they initiated contact with me here on Requiem,” the Didact said. “My plan to use the Schism was already established, but I couldn’t turn my back on my dedication to the Mantle’s teachings. I had to see them for myself.”

“As if my providence, I discovered their vessel was going to pass through this system. I coordinated with the Faithful to set up an attack in attempt to retrieve the construct. Having their ship land on the planet was not part of the plan, but I still used their presence to my advantage,” he continued.

“It didn’t take long for me to see the depth of the knowledge the construct carried within her matrices once she entered into Requiem’s systems.” He looked briefly at the Warrior. “The wealth of information she contained had been mostly undiscovered by the Reclaimers. However, I remained unconvinced to stop my plan and ordered for the Prometheans to capture her. She was too dangerous to fall into another’s hands.”

“As you know, they managed to flee from my Knights, despite her condition. Later, she entered the control center’s systems and I was able to access more of her data.” He tilted his head, as if studying the Librarian. “You were right, there is a cure for the Great Infection.”

Her heart sped up. She knew that there was a way to deal with the Flood without causing a mass genocide. “You know it?”

He avoided her question. “I accessed the Bestiarum,” he confessed.

Her brow furrowed. What would he want with the genetic records of the species that had been taken to the Ark? And what did that have to do with the Cure?

“You might have wondered why I waited so long to meet with you. Dreaming...sleeping is difficult,” he said. “But, I finally did it.”

A worried feeling settled in her stomach. Why did she think that her husband had done something potentially foolish? 

“Did what?” she prompted.

“Accelerated the human growth process.”

The pieces of what he had done started to fall into place. “Did you...”

“Figure out a way to perform a merging between an AI and a sentient? Yes, I did.”

A shadow moved in the corner of the room. The Warrior turned towards the figure, gun drawn, though the Librarian doubted he would keep his weapon trained on the person for long. 

She was wearing an updated version of the Forerunner armor. Her height was short compared to the Librarian’s tall stature. She didn’t miss the uncharacteristic sixth finger on each hand. The woman reached up and took the helmet off her head, revealing a head of brown hair and a pair of purple eyes. The Librarian needed no further confirmation that as human as she appeared, this woman contained Forerunner DNA.

“The Intellect has...evolved,” explained the Didact.

She looked at the Warrior. A soft grin stretched her lips. “Miss me?”

The Warrior’s hold on his weapon faltered. “Cortana?”

She smirked. “You know, you’re a lot shorter than I remembered.”

011010010110111001110100011001010110110001101100011001010110001101110100

**0525 Hours, August 27, 2557  
Control Center, War Room  
Requiem Shield World, Forerunner Installation SW-0043**

She was human.

Or at least, that’s how he would see her, she quickly amended.

The truth was she was an amalgamation of what the universe had to offer. Humans were her primary DNA source but her new corporeal body had been weaved with genes from other species, including the Forerunners. She was the product of an amazing genetic experiment which had never been attempted in the course of Forerunner history.

She watched as John processed her glib reply. For having no idea that she was alive, let alone human, he seemed to be handling her new appearance rather well. But, she hardly expected less from him.

Cortana could hardly contain her elation at seeing him after they had been separated. Though she had been unaware for much of the time since her program had been deactivated, she knew it had been nearly five weeks since she had said goodbye to the Spartan.

It was the longest separation they had from each other in five years. 

And she had missed him.

He took a step forward, seemingly forgetting about the others in the room. “I told you that you would be fine,” he said warmly.

She arched an eyebrow. “You didn’t mention anything about me being reincarnated as a human. Though I’m not complaining.”

John looked at the pair of Forerunners who were watching their exchange openly. Then, he turned back to Cortana, his voice formal. “What’s your status?”

Back to business.

His question wasn’t easy to answer. There was so much she was still trying to get accustomed to, yet there was an inherent knowledge of how to use her abilities. She could talk, walk and even wirelessly access the Forerunner systems without any issue. But, there was still an awkward reality to contend with: the mutation had only taken place twelve hours prior.

Like when her program had been first activated on Reach, there was not a period of time given to her to adapt and accept who she was. Having lived before in the confines of a digital world, she struggled to deal with the limitations of being corporeal had. Hunger, exhaustion, and pain were all new to Cortana.

The disadvantages didn’t outweigh the benefits, however. For the first time in her life, Cortana wasn’t reliant on a data network or the Chief to transport her from place to place. She had the freedom to move as she willed. She could touch, smell, and taste things. 

She was alive.

“Green,” she answered simply. There would be time to discuss the emotions behind her transformation later. 

The Librarian turned to the Didact. “How did you do this? Her program terminated. The Warrior saw it himself.”

“Her program _did_ terminate. When she entered into the control center’s systems, I began a file transfer of all of her data and stored it until the Bloc was completed. When it was finished, I merged the human I had created with the thoughts and memories of the construct. A form of a bevet mutation,” the Didact explained.

What the Forerunner had left out was how excruciating the pain had been. The first thing she recalled after being consumed by the aqua light was screaming with a voice she had never used before. Her head cried out in affliction as everything she had done, known and experienced as an AI came flooding into her brain at one time. Her heart pounded as the horrors of everything she knew --the destruction caused by the Flood, the glassing of dozens of UNSC planets, the suffocating pain of dying a slow death-- cascaded into her mind.

“A bevet mutation?” marvelled the Librarian. “How?”

He moved to stand in front of her and took her hands. Despite their colorful history, it was clear to Cortana that he cared for the woman in front of him. “I’ll show you.”

Then, they disappeared.

John raised the lightrifle to where they had been standing.

“It’s ok, Chief. He’s just showing her the Bloc,” she assured him. “It’s the machine that made me possible.”

He cocked his head to the side. “How do you know where they went?”

“Part of my new upgrades.” She tapped her temple. “I have access to all of Requiem’s systems.”

“How?”

“I’m not a human as I appear,” she confessed. “I have some Forerunner DNA in my genetic code which explains the eyes and the hands.” She held them up and revealed her six digits. “The Didact used Doctor Halsey’s DNA as a rough template for my genetic makeup, but he relied on the information in the Forerunner’s database of all known species to make up for any ‘impurities’, as he called them, which would allow for the Forerunner DNA to be incorporated into my new body.”

“I have a neural link that allows for me to maintain a connection into the Forerunner mainframe.” She tilted her neck and pulled back her hair. Behind her left ear, there was a small transmitter embedded under her skin. He took a step closer to look at the three centimeter disc-shaped emitter.

She straightened and flashed him a guilty look. “I wanted to contact you before the Didact met with you, but we weren’t sure that the comm channels weren’t being monitored by the other Prometheans.” 

He shook his head, waving off her apology. 

She drew in a deep breath. “The Didact hasn’t been completely upfront with you two. The Prometheans are getting restless. The Delegate in particular.”

“Do they know what he’s been doing?”

She looked up at his visor. An unfamiliar person was looking back at her. It was going to take time for her to adjust to her humanity. 

“You mean his Doctor Frankenstein test?” she asked, gesturing to herself. “No, he hid me here as soon as he felt like I could make the move. He worked on the Bloc in secret, though I suspect the Delegate knows he’s been up to something.” 

“They’re nervous that the Librarian is going to talk him out of his plan to reset the timeline.” A questioning look passed over her face. “Was I right about the Schism? That they were going back to 2552?”

He nodded, reaching for one of the compartments. He pulled out the container holding the crystal.

“You brought it in here?” She raised an eyebrow. “You’re braver than I thought.”

“We need to get to the Inner Chamber so we can destroy it,” John said, putting it away.

She shook her head. “It’s not that easy. The Didact can easily monitor every lifesign. The Prometheans can also track us. We’re not getting anywhere close to there unless he allows it.” She looked at where he had stood. “I know he seems calm, but, I saw him interact with the Delegate earlier. His temper is not anything to shrug off. Let’s just hope that the Librarian is as convincing as the Delegate fears that she is,” she said.

“She’ll do it and then we’re going to destroy the crystal,” he said assuredly.

“We?” she asked, surprised. “Officially, I’m not even part of the UNSC anymore.” A frown darkened her face. “I can only imagine what High Command’s orders for me are going to be. Becoming ONI’s newest pet project based in genetic research isn’t really high on my list of priorities.”

He didn’t rush into assure her that everything was fine which unsettled Cortana. When he did speak, however, she didn’t miss the certainty in his voice. “You’re not going to be anyone’s test subject.”

She gave him a disbelievingly look. “Even you only have so much pull with Lord Hood, Chief.”

“Nothing is going to happen to you,” he promised. He sounded so sure of himself that she almost believed his words.

She tilted her head and gave him a friendly smile. “I missed your stubborn determination,” she said softly.

Was it her imagination or was he moving closer to her?

She would never know the answer because suddenly an alert was issued throughout Requiem’s systems. There was something wrong with the Didact. He had activated a level three security countermeasure. 

The Delegate had finally made a move against him, Cortana assumed.

“What’s wrong?” John asked, picking up on her concern.

She shrugged, ignoring the nervousness she felt. If the Didact has issued a security alert, it meant that he was no longer in control of the Prometheans. “Nothing out of the ordinary: some angry bad guys want to kill us.” 

Cortana accessed the control center’s security systems through her telepathic connection to the network. She had been right. The Delegate and several other Prometheans had entered the area that held the Bloc and were holding the pair of Forerunners hostage. The Didact, to try slow the rebel Prometheans, had locked down all of Requiem’s long-range transportation systems. 

Which meant her and the Chief were in for a long walk.

Briefly, she wondered how her body would handle the extended journey. Hours ago, she had been too shaky to stand for more than a few moments at a time. Then, Cortana dismissed her concerns. She had pushed herself beyond what she had thought possible in her immaterial state. She would do no less as a human.

She slipped her helmet over her head. As the various displays appeared, it seemed odd to Cortana that she would be using such an interface. Six weeks ago, she had been that technology, retrieving and giving information to the Chief.

With a quick burst of mental commands, she uploaded a map of the control center to the Chief’s armor. He jerked his head up to her, silently asking her how she had done that.

“I piggybacked off your neural lace using Requiem’s systems. Simple hacking stuff,” she explained with a shrug. “I wanted to make sure I haven’t lost my touch.”

She then walked across the room to where there was a weapons locker and pushed the button that opened the door. An array of firearms were at her and John’s disposal. 

There was the concerning truth that she hadn’t ever picked up a gun, let alone fired one, but Cortana wouldn’t let that bother her. She had destroyed a dozen Covenant battleships, what was a few Prometheans who had a problem with authority?

John grabbed as much ammo as he could hold for his lightrifle. Cortana grabbed a scattershot and three dozen shells before making her way to the main door. “This way.”

John led the way which was perfectly fine with Cortana. She was content to let him deal with the hostiles they encountered which would allow her to focus on monitoring the situation with the Didact and circumventing any security measures the Prometheans tried to throw their way.

She hacked into the communication grid as they walked slowly down the corridor. The sunshine spilled through the tall windows, making it impossible for any Knights to hide in the shadows. She didn’t lessen the hold on her gun, however, she was aware at how skilled the warriors were.

They approached the gravlift. John scanned up the shaft for any hidden hostiles, but the area was clear. As they were riding the lift upwards, she intercepted a troubling communique. “We’re got an Elite task force headed to our position,” she warned. “Guess they aren’t too happy about the reconciliation between the Didact and the Librarian either.”

Cortana tried to monitor the Elite’s progress, but her information was limited with the lockdown that the Didact had established. She only had access to the most basic tracking systems which did not detect the Covenant when their active camouflage was activated.

She switched her visor to infrared mode and advised John to do the same. When they stepped off the lift, a gnawing feeling settled in her stomach. With a start, she realized that she was nervous. Being protected by the Chief’s armor, tucked safely in his neural lace had offered her a depth of protection that she had taken for granted.

John detected her agitation. “You alright?”

“I’m fine,” she lied. “Probably getting a little hungry. I haven’t been introduced to my first meal yet. The Didact isn’t known for his hospitality, you know.”

He took her at her word and moved forward. They continued making their way through the control center, moving slowly as to not catch the attention of any Covenant and Prometheans. 

After five minutes of no enemy contact, Cortana was starting to wish the Elite would arrive. Every time she and John entered a room, her pulse spiked until John gave her the all-clear signal. 

They had cleared a large room and were making their way to the other side when Cortana noticed the red light glowing on the door. “I’ll override this.”

She closed her eyes as she remotely accessed the door’s controls. As her neural interface wirelessly interacted with Requiem’s system, she saw a burst of ones and zeroes whiz by. For the first time since she had reawakened, she felt like herself. This was the world she was accustomed to: lines of code that could be reprogrammed and easily anticipated, unlike the Elites’ movements which were as unpredictable as humans’. 

Her thoughts weaved through the firewalls the Prometheans had implemented. She was about to reach out and delete the obtrusive code when a blast from outside the confines of the datastream distracted her.

Cortana stumbled backwards as she opened her eyes. She hit against the side of the Chief who was aiming his gun at something behind her. His shields glowed in response.

“Sorry, Chief.”

“The door?” he asked as a blast of plasma came hurling towards them.

“Still locked,” she said frustratedly. Multitasking within the Chief’s armor had been second nature to her. Doing the same wasn’t as simple when so many of her thoughts were concentrating on staying alive. “I’m trying, Chief.”

“I’ll handle the Elites. You get the door.”

It was a simple act of faith, to trust that John would protect her, and it was one that she could do readily. Her life had been tied to his ability to protect her since Reach. Besides, she had little choice. She didn’t want to be stuck in the room when either John’s bullets or luck ran out.

She nodded and closed her eyes again. Again, she raced through the systems until she found the subroutine to the door’s controls and located the firewall. She vaguely registered the sound of gunfire. She sailed through the infrastructure and found the rogue code. With a burst of commands, she started to erase it.

Time seemed to slow as she watched the lines of code disappear. When it had finally been completely eradicated, she rebooted the door’s controls, uploaded a new protocol then exited the systems.

She opened her eyes. John was standing close to her, providing her cover from the incoming fire. “Fifteen seconds,” she told him.

He gave her a curt nod and fired the lightrifle. 

There were still five Elites in the room with them. Their active camo had been deactivated allowing Cortana to pinpoint their location. They were scattered throughout the room, each taking aim at her and John. She lifted up her scattershot and took aim at the Elite closest to them.

She fired the gun, but had been unprepared for the recoil. She stumbled backwards at the force, her shot missing its mark. She inwardly cursed; she and the Chief didn’t have time for her to have a learning curve. Then, with her characteristic determination, she raised the gun and took another shot. This time, she managed to hit the Elite, causing him to howl in pain. Before he could recover, she unleashed another round, killing him.

The doors behind her started to hum as their opening mechanism started to move. She took a step backwards as they slid apart, keeping her gun trained on any Elites that tried to rush them. John activated a plasma grenade and tossed it at the Elites.

He crept backwards, moving to step through the opening. When he was behind the giant metal doors, they started to close quickly, locking out any Elites that survived the blast.

“They won’t be able to get in. I uploaded a protocol for the doors to only open in the presence of Reclaimers.”

Her brow furrowed at her use of the Forerunner term for humans. Was there more to her connection to the Forerunners than she had thought? She needed to talk to the Didact when everything settled down.

“Humans,” she corrected awkwardly. “I meant to say humans.”

“Cortana...” he started.

“I’m surprised I haven’t made the slip earlier. I have spent a considerable time in the Forerunner systems, when you think about it,” she replied, attempting to convince herself as much as John. “It’s nothing to be worried about.”

He nodded slowly. “If you are sure.”

“I am. Come on, it’s not much further.”

01110010011001010111011001101111011011000111010101110100011010010110111101101110

0545 Hours, August 27, 2557  
Control Center, Requiem Shield World  
Forerunner Installation SW-0043

Cortana was alive.

John gave her a sideways glance as they continued making their way to where the Librarian and the Didact were. 

Or, at least, John thought she was.

There was no doubt that this woman in front of him had the same personalities and mannerisms as the AI who had been his near-constant companion throughout the Halo campaign. Her voice was different, but it still contained the same nuances that it did before. He could hear the smirk behind her sarcastic observations, the smile when she called him “Chief”.

Still, John couldn’t shake the feeling that this was some kind of plot by the Didact to obtain the crystal from him. It seemed too convenient that he had taken the Librarian away just after Cortana had been revealed. It felt too contrived that after two weeks, the Knights would suddenly make their move against the Didact.

There was a vulnerability in this woman had that seemed contrary to the Cortana he knew. 

From the minute he met Cortana on Reach, there had been a no-nonsense assurance about her. She was confident in everything that she did. But, as they were making their way through the control center, John hadn’t missed the way she had seemed nervous when the Elites started to attack them or the confused look that had passed over her face when she had accidentally used the term “Reclaimers.”

“I can hear you thinking from here, which is quite a feat considering that I’m no longer in that head of yours,” she said, turning to him. 

“How do I know that you’re really Cortana?” he asked bluntly.

“You mean, how can I prove to you that the Didact didn’t just create some random human based on the information he gathered from my matrices when I was in Requiem’s systems?” she returned.

“Yes.”

“I can’t.” She shrugged. “The truth is, the Didact had access to all of the data my program contained. Anything I knew in my AI state would have been available to him.”

He frowned. 

“I can’t prove it to myself either, Chief.” She sighed. “One minute, I was in the inner core with you, barely unable to think. The next, I was experiencing a pain so horrific, I thought I was dying again. The only thing I can tell you is that I feel like I’m Cortana. That means that my loyalties lie with the UNSC. And you, not the Didact.”

He had a decision to make, whether or not to trust this woman in the front of him. In the end, it wasn’t that difficult of a choice: he had chosen to trust Cortana throughout the time they had been assigned to work together and he would do the same now.

“Lucky me.”

“Come on, Chief.” He recognized the relief in her voice. “We’ve got a couple of Forerunners to rescue.”

They walked down another long corridor, getting closer to the Librarian and the Didact’s position. As the archway of a large room came into view, a booming voice carried down the halls.

It was the Delegate.

Cortana paused for a moment and held her hand out for John to stop walking. “We’ve been given clearance to the Inner Chamber where we need to destroy the crystal.”

John looked forward. “How do we get there?”

“Through the center hub,” she answered, nodding towards where they had heard the shouting. “If we’re careful, we _might_ be able to get through there undetected. Based on the transmissions between the Knights, they are unaware of our exact position.”

He nodded as he started walking down the hallway. The corridor opened into the large room. A bulky contraption loomed in the far corner of the room --the Bloc, he assumed. The Librarian stood close to it; a Knight had his rifle pointed at her head. The Didact, who was in the center of the chamber, was next to the Delegate. There were at least eight other Knights scattered throughout the room, guarding the exits.

“I never said it was going to be easy,” Cortana muttered.

John crept along the wall, allowing the shadows to blanket him. When he glanced in Cortana’s direction, he saw that she was watching the exchange between the Didact and the Delegate closely. 

“The Delegate has control on short range transports,” Cortana said over his comm. “Watch your back.”

“Understood.”

The Delegate continued to shout as they made their way to the eastern side of the room. “Where is the Source?” he demanded.

“I have told you that the Intellect is collecting it from the Reclaimer,” the Didact replied. “She will deliver it to me herself.”

John jerked his head back to Cortana and stopped walking. Had he been too quick to trust her?

She looked at him, her face still hidden behind the visor. “I’m not going to give him the crystal, John,” she assured him. “I’m not going to turn my back on you, I promise.”

He was willing to disregard his concerns. Cortana had plenty of opportunities to retrieve the crystal if she had wanted along the way. John gave her a curt nod and looked back to the scene in front of them. 

The Delegate’s helmet peeled back. His skull burned. “Do you take me for a simpleton? She will not deliver it to you! But I will find the Reclaimer and take it by force. If you are too weak to go through with the Plan, than I shall do so myself.”

“We need to get going, Chief,” she said, taking a step forward.

They continued to creep along the edge of the room, careful not to attract any attention as the Delegate and the Didact continued their standoff. Just as they were turning the last corner, his armor squealed as a bombardment of shots hit him.

They had been caught.

John ducked and turned around, looking for their attacker. When he spotted the Knight, he fired the lightrifle, hitting the Knight’s arm, throwing off the Promethean’s aim. Then, the Knight unexpectedly disappeared.

The Knight rematerialised several feet away from him briefly before he vanished again. The next time he appeared, he was close enough to John to knock him to the ground. His gun flew out of his hand, sliding several feet away from his outstretched fingers.

The Knight towered over him, his lightrifle pointed at his head. “It is time to finish what I started, child.”

John swung his arm out in front of his chest, knocking the Knight’s gun to the side. John rolled to the left and kicked the Knight’s leg, causing the Promethean to fall to his knees. Then, John threw his elbow backwards, slamming it on the Knight’s jaw piece. It snapped at the contact.

“Chief!” Cortana cried. She was looking at him with her gun, ready to take a clear shot. He reached up and shoved the Knight’s jaw as hard as he could, lifting it away from him. 

Suddenly, a loud voice cut through the air. “Enough!” the Didact shouted. “Tell them to stand down, Delegate!”

The towering Promethean raised his hand and the Knights stopped their attack. The Knight over John reluctantly released his hold on the Spartan. He stood up, leaving John on the ground, wheezing slightly. 

“Get the feeling he doesn’t like you much?” Cortana was standing next to him, looking down.

He took her offered hand and stood up. The Librarian moved to stand by her husband. The Delegate, armed with a lightrifle, pointed it at the two of them. Then gestured with his free hand for John and Cortana to join the Forerunners. 

“It is fitting the two of you have arrived since you are partially responsible for his change of heart,” the Delegate said to John and Cortana. “My Knights will relish in making your deaths as painful as possible.”

“And you!” He stopped in front of the Librarian. “You have always created interference!”

She said nothing; it was the Didact that spoke. “She offered insight during troubled times. The Builders would have been wise to listen to her counsel.”

“You are a fool!” He spun to face the Didact. “Once I knew that she was on this planet, I knew that your commitment to the Plan would falter. She has always been your weakness.”

“She is my strength,” the Forerunner countered, taking a step towards the hulking Knight. 

Cortana’s voice cut through on his comm channel. “Get ready, Chief. The Didact is plotting something. I’m detecting dozens of energy signatures headed to our location. Be ready to make a move when I give the signal.”

John scanned the room, plotting an escape route. He’d feel a lot better if he had a weapon available to him.

The Didact spoke again. “Now, let her and the Reclaimers go. If your issue is with me, then contend with me directly. Leave the others alone.”

"I will do no such thing," the Delegate snarled.

"Then you have condemned yourself and those that foolishly follow you," replied the Didact.

Cortana's voice suddenly cut through John’s comm. “Duck!”

John immediately dropped to the ground. She, the Librarian and the Didact did the same as a dozen Aggressor Sentinels flew in the room, firing their beams at the unsuspecting Knights. The Prometheans started to shoot at the moving targets, turning their attention away from the quartet. Using the distraction to his advantage, the Didact charged at the Delegate.

“Now is our chance!” Cortana said, rolling to the side. 

“We need to get to the Inner Chamber,” the Librarian said as a shot sailed to the side of her.

John pushed off the ground and straightened. Unfortunately, the Knight who had attacked him before the Delegate’s intervention was only several inches from him. “Where do you think you are going, child?”

“Chief!”

He saw Cortana toss a lightrifle in his direction. His right hand reached out and grabbed the weapon while he kept his eyes trained on the Knight. Then, in one fluid movement, he brought it up to the bottom of the Knight’s chin and fired.

The Knight dropped to his knees before falling over, dead.

He watched as the Sentinels took aim at another Knight. Two of them were shot down by the Promethean, but finally, with a few well placed shots from John, another Knight had been killed.

He swung around and watched as the Librarian dodged a volley of plasma bullets. She was unarmed, staying behind Cortana who was shooting at two Knights that were approaching their position. He watched as Cortana fired the scattershot three times. The closest Knight burst into a shower of light. 

Before she had time to reload, the other Knight shot at her. John watched as the energy was absorbed by her armor’s shields. Cortana stumbled backwards, dropping to one knee.

“Intellect!” the Librarian cried worriedly.

Fueled by adrenaline and concern, John sprinted across the room, dodging the bullets that raced around him. He brought up his rifle; when he was close enough to the Promethean, he shot him in the back of the skull twice. 

The Knight crumbled to the ground, but John’s attention was on Cortana who was slowly moving to stand upright.

“You alright?” he asked breathlessly.

“I’m fine,” she assured him.

He held a hand out to help her straight from her awkward position. As he felt her fingers wrap around his hand, he pulled her to stand next to him. They stood facing each other briefly.

“Thanks, John.”

He gave her a curt nod and turned back to where the majority of the fight was happening. More Sentinels and Knights had appeared while he had been helping Cortana. The Sentinels still outnumbered the Knights three to one, but the Prometheans were easily shooting down the defense drones faster than they were being attacked.

It was time to even the playing field.

“Here.” He swiveled to face Cortana. John reached into his compartment and pulled out the case that held the crystal. “Take this and get down to the Inner Chamber.”

There was a moment of uncertainty on her part.

“I trust you,” he said sincerely.

That was all of the encouragement she needed. She gave a curt nod and reached out to take the container. “Come on,” she said to the Librarian. 

He watched the two women start to escape. A niggle of worry crept into his thoughts. As quickly as the unwanted feeling entered his consciousness, he dismissed it. Action, not emotion, would help Cortana and the Librarian to get to the Inner Chamber.

He scanned the area, spotting a Knight that had taken notice of the fleeing women. Before the Promethean could alert the others, John fired twice. The bolts of plasma hit the Knight in the skull, pulling his attention away from Cortana and the Librarian.

Then, the Knight abruptly disappeared.

John was ready for the Knight’s attack. The Spartan raised his rifle in the air, predicting where the Knight would rematerialize and waited. Seconds later, the Knight appeared in front of the Spartan, skull blazing. John released his the trigger. The burst of molten plasma hit the Knight directly in the chest. The Promethean staggered forward. Despite his wound, he lifted his scattershot and fired a round at John.

Immediately, his shields were completely depleted. The status bar flashed red as his suit attempted to reestablish his shields. 

Ignoring the searing pain, John fired two more shots at the injured Promethean. The Sentinels added their firepower and soon the Knight fell to the ground, unable to fight. 

Then, John and the Sentinels moved to congregate with the others in the center of the room. Together, they eliminated the remaining Knights with the exception of the Delegate who was next to the Didact.

The Delegate was backed up against the wall. His gun had been knocked to the ground, his armor had sustained significant damage. The Didact towered over him. “You have forgotten your place!” His voice shook with anger.

“It is not me who has forgotten!” The Delegate shouted. “This is not yet over!” Then, he disappeared.

John tensed and scanned the room for signs of the Delegate.

“Do not trouble yourself, Reclaimer. He is no longer interested in our actions. Come.” He walked over to him. “We must go help the Librarian and the Intellect.”

Then, everything disappeared.

011001000110100101100100011000010110001101110100

0605 Hours, August 27, 2557  
Control Center, Requiem Shield World  
Forerunner Installation SW-0043

The Delegate was up to something.

The fact that she and the Intellect had encountered no resistance during their way to the Inner Chamber alarmed the Librarian. She knew that her husband and the Warrior were both skilled fighters, but the leader of the Promethean AIs would not be easily defeated. She chose to not voice her concerns to the Intellect who was leading them down the hall, her weapon ready to protect them.

“This wasn’t quite the reunion the Didact was expecting,” the Intellect said as they neared a set of doors. “He didn’t realize the Delegate’s power had grown so strong.”

They walked through the passage. “The Delegate has always been disapproving of our marriage. He has been determined to separate me and the Didact for centuries. He believed it was a poor use of judgment for my husband to marry outside his rate,” the Librarian replied.

The Intellect nodded. “I know.”

There was still so much the Librarian didn’t know about the Intellect and the process her husband had used to bring her data back to life. Had her husband implanted his own thoughts and memories in her as he had with Bornstellar?

“How did you learn of that?”

The Intellect must have sensed the concern in her voice. “It’s not what you’re thinking,” she assured her. “The answer is much more mundane; I hacked into the Didact’s personal logs. He talked about you and the history between you two a lot.”

“You were able to access the data stored in his armor?” Even she didn’t have access to that information.

She shrugged. “Old habits die hard, I guess.”

They walked for several minutes before the Intellect spoke again. “Since you asked a question, mind if I throw one your way?”

She reckoned she knew who she wanted to ask about. “Go ahead.”

The Intellect’s steps slowed. “Did you really strand yourself on Earth with prehistoric humans rather than return to the people and world you knew?”

The Librarian was so surprised by the fact that the Intellect hadn’t asked about the Warrior, it took her several seconds to formulate an answer. “I believed that humanity had something remarkable about them, that they would take the place of the Forerunners someday, and I wanted to be a part of that, yes.”

“You left the Didact.”

“My husband and I had been separated for centuries. Such distance was not uncommon with our people,” she defended.

The Intellect shook her head. “I don’t think I could have done the same thing. Leaving the Chief alone to fight a war, even one that was doomed.”

“The connection the two of you share is different than the one the Didact and I have. Yours is deeper than love, bounded by trust,” the Librarian said, subconsciously quoting the Augury. 

The Intellect paused, then turned slowly towards her. “It was you, wasn’t it? You uploaded that data to my matrices in the control center before the Schism was activated.”

She was impressed that the Intellect remembered that time; her data saturation levels had been so high at the time. “I did try to transmit the entire Augury to you, yes. It was my attempt to stop the Didact and Delegate from going through with their ill-conceived plan,” admitted the Librarian.

“Does John know what the prophecy says?” She seemed nervous at the idea.

Her reaction intrigued the Librarian. The depth of how close the Warrior considered the Intellect had been clear to the Forerunner from the time he had awoken on the Infinity. 

“No. I did not tell him the Augury.”

Immediately, the Intellect relaxed.

“You do not want him to know what it says?” she asked curiously.

Cortana started walking again. “It’s going to be difficult for him to adjust with this--” She gestured towards her body. “--without thinking about some Forerunner prophecy.”

“I believe that you underestimate the Warrior’s ability to adapt,” the Librarian countered.

“Maybe I need some time too,” she said softly.

The Librarian didn’t reply as they continued making their way to the Inner Chamber. They turned another corner where the ground sloped downwards. At the end of the passage, there was a large door that led to the outer chamber, but it was secured.

The Librarian stepped to the control panel by the door and entered a long string of codes. When she and the Didact had been in the Bloc, he had confided that he had reset Requiem’s systems to their prior state, allowing her to have access to the planet’s security systems. After she pressed the last button, the light above the door turned green. It rolled back, granting them entrance to the outer chamber.

In the outer chamber, the Didact and the Warrior stood. Each held a weapon in their hand, ready to eliminate any threat that stood in the way of victory. The warrior of the past and the Warrior of the present, together.

“You cheated,” the Intellect accused the Warrior. There was mirth in her voice.

“Do you still have it?” he asked, not responding to her comment.

She held out the case. “You know I keep what I steal. Or what you stole in this case.” She considered him for a second. “Maybe ONI was right to think I would be a bad influence on you.”

“Go,” the Didact instructed the Reclaimers. “Destroy the Source. We will remain out here in case the Delegate arrives.”

The Warrior and the Intellect nodded and made their way to the Inner Chamber. The small room was surrounded by windows that allowed the Reclaimers to be seen. Inside, the Librarian saw the transparent enclosure that would contain the Void that would destroy the Source.

The Didact’s solid footsteps approached her.

“I must admit something to you,” he said, following her gaze. “For a long time --for millenias-- I believed that you and I were the fabled Warrior and Intellect. You had wisdom and insight that even the Builders did not possess and I had the universe's largest army at my disposal. I believed that we would usher in a new chance for our people to thrive.”

He looked at her. “It never was us, was it?”

“No.” She faced him and placed her hand on his arm. “It wasn’t, but that doesn’t mean that our actions won’t make an impact to these peoples who have succeeded us. You have already done the universe a great deed by restoring the Intellect.”

She looked back at the Reclaimers. “Does she know what information she has?”

“The cure?” He shook his head. “Not yet. I believe it is to the Intellect’s advantage for her to learn of it on her own accord. She will remember it when it is time for the knowledge to be discovered.”

The Librarian was tempted to argue, that the cure from the Flood infection should be brought to light immediately, but with no threat of a Gravemind, she was content to let the issue lie. 

“And you are accepting of the Source’s destruction?” she asked, glancing in the direction of the Inner Chamber. The Intellect was working quickly at the console; the Warrior stood ready with the Source in his hand.

“Accepting, yes, though against my better judgment. I still believe that we as a people are better equipped to deal with the Flood and the fate of the Universe. But, your insight has proven correct in times past. I will trust in it now, as I should have before the Halo Array was activated.” 

He abruptly pulled back and spun to face the door. “Stand back. The Delegate is approaching.”

She may have been unarmed --a conscious decision she had made when she fled with the Intellect-- but she was unwilling to move away from her husband. The fate of the Schism and its Source was in the hands of the Warrior and the Intellect now.

The Sentinels moved by the door, ready to attack.

The lights dimmed briefly. She risked a look at the inner chamber. A small dot four centimeters wide was hovering in the middle of the apparatus. The Void was starting to form. 

“How long will it take?”

“Several minutes. I will hold him off. They will be protected,” he assured her.

She believed in her husband’s skill as a soldier. He hadn’t been Supreme Leader of the Forerunner Army without reason. “I know you will, Didact.”

Another ten seconds passed. Then, the main chamber door slid to the side. The Delegate stood there alone. His armor had been damaged; the pieces hung awkwardly from his shoulder blades. His helmet had been knocked off. His burning skull caused shadows to dance across the room.

“It is too late, Delegate,” her husband said commandingly. “The Reclaimers will destroy the Source and the Schism will be deactivated.”

“You overestimate your power, Didact,” the Forerunner AI spat. Suddenly, the Sentinels dropped to the ground, powerless. “ _I_ control this planet. _I_ will restore the timeline to the way it should have been, then the Knights will have our rightful place in history.”

“You would turn against your leader?” the Didact asked.

“You have turned against your people! Just like she did! Bias was right to be convinced by the Gravemind,” he shouted. “Arrogance and pride are the Forerunners downfall, but I will go back and show you the errors of your ways. Then it shall be the Knights, not the Flood, that will succeed the Forerunners.”

“You speak madness. You are rampant, just like those who came before you,” the Didact replied.

“But not the Intellect. Isn’t that right, _Commander_?” He bared his teeth. “You are like _her_. Putting the Reclaimers ahead your own kind. _That_ is madness!”

The Librarian willed for the Void to be fully established. She knew firsthand the devastation that a rampant AI could cause. 

“Stand down, Delegate,” the Didact said evenly. “If you do such, I will permit you to exist until the time when your matrices cease to function.”

“Never!” Then, he pulled his left hand from behind him and activated a light sword. The Librarian recognized the weapon from the UNSC mission logs she had watched. She knew how deadly they could be.

“Watch out!” she cried as she ducked for cover.

Her husband, despite his speed, was not able to move out of the way in time. The plasma blade sliced across his abdomen, breaching his suit. He fell to his knees, clutching his middle.

The Librarian’s heart lurched. There was no creature, Forerunner or human, that would be able to survive such a wound. Blood stained the armor and dripped on his gloved fingers. He gasped for air as he gritted out, “You are a traitor.”

She moved to her husband’s side, not fearing the wrath of the Knight. 

“To who? My own kind? I am not.” He laughed bitterly. “Enjoy these final moments when you will watch the Great Plan come into fruition. Perhaps, if you are lucky, when I go back, I will allow you to live as my servant.” Then, the Delegate started to cross the room to where the Warrior and the Intellect were.

The Void was only half-grown, the Librarian saw. The Reclaimers needed more time. 

“You must protect them,” the Didact wheezed. He slowly lifted the rifle he held. His grip was limp, his hand trembled. “He will do whatever it takes to make sure he retrieves the Source.”

The Librarian reluctantly took the weapon. Destroying life --artificial or sentient-- went against her conscience. As a Lifeshaper, she respected all forms of life. Still, she could not allow for the Source to remain.

She stood and faced the Delegate. “Do not move!” she warned.

He paused before he turned around slowly. “I do not fear you, Lifeworker. You, the one who refused to support the destruction of the Flood in its entirety, would terminate the AI that saved your life not once, but twice?”

“I will if I must. The Schism will never be activated again.”

“You are as foolish as you were when you decided to stay on Erde-Tyrene. Put the weapon down and go to the Didact while you are still alive. There will be no place for you when I go through the Schism,” he sneered. Then, he purposefully turned around and strode towards the Inner Chamber.

She fired once as a warning. “The next time, I will not miss.”

“The Reclaimers have a saying that is wiser than most of their drivel: actions speak louder than words. Your threats mean nothing to me.” He pushed his hand on the door control.

The Librarian squeezed the trigger.

She watched as the glowing shot sailed across the room and hit the Delegate in his exposed skull. He exploded into an eruption of sparks. She stood there for several seconds, looking at where the Delegate had stood.

“Beloved.” 

She closed her eyes in sorrow at the sound of the Didact’s strained voice. They had never been fond of pet names for each other; the only other time he had used that name was to console her when their children had died.

She dropped the gun and went to his side. He was dying and there was nothing she could do it stop it. She placed a gentle hand on his chest.

“Do not allow the Reclaimers to forget the history of those who came before them.” He coughed and shuddered under her fingers. “Perhaps they will learn from our mistakes and endure where our people stumbled.”

“They will remember,” she promised.

He gripped her arm forcibly. “I have heard whispers. About the Precursors. They are still watching.”

The Librarian frowned at the implication of his words. “You know this?”

There was a long pause before he spoke. “There have been indications. The Ark. Something is there. It has been cut off from...” He trailed off.

“From?”

“Everything. The Intellect. Has been given access to the Builder’s Way. My gift. To the Reclaimers...”

The lights flickered. She looked at the Inner Chamber; the Void was nearly full-grown. It would soon be time for the Source’s destruction.

Her husband tensed and groaned. It pained her to see him suffer in such a way. “What can I do to help?”

“Live.” His breathing was more forced. “I love you, Lifegiver.”

A tear slipped down her cheek. She leaned his forehead against his. “And I love you, Supreme Commander.”

Then, the Didact breathed his last breath.

01100111011010010110011001110100

0635 Hours, August 27, 2557  
Control Center, Inner Chamber  
Requiem Shield World, Forerunner Installation SW-0043

“He’s dead.” Cortana’s proclamation barely carried over the cacophony of sounds coming from the chamber that was housing the Void. “There was nothing anyone could have done. The Delegate knew exactly what he was doing when he attacked him.”

Together, she and John had watched the assault on the Didact and the subsequent attack by the Librarian while she rushed to create the Void as quickly as it was safely possible. John had wanted to go out to help the Forerunners, but Cortana couldn’t risk circumventing the lockdown in the Inner Chamber and potentially collapsing the Void.

An awkward silence blanketed the room as they watched the Librarian lean her forehead against the Didact’s helmet. John turned away abruptly. Cortana lowered her gaze as she tapped on the holographic interface.

After a minute, she typed in the last string of commands. The Void expanded to a diameter of a meter across. “It’s ready. Just open the hatch, then slip the crystal inside. The mechanism in the chamber will deposit the crystal into the Void. Then it will be just one more time that we will have saved the universe.”

He nodded. Cortana monitored the readout as he opened the lid on the container that held the crystal. He picked up the crystal. Immediately, it grew into its original size and started to glow a deep orange.

With a flick of his left hand, he opened the hatch. Then, he started to lower the crystal to deposit it in the cradle, but a force field appeared, blocking the opening.

“Cortana?”

Her fingers flew over the controls as she attempted to figure out the problem. “Give me a second.” She accessed the control center’s main grid and frowned. “We’ve got a problem. Our recently deceased friend, the Delegate, added a defense protocol to the primary system. It won’t allow us to destroy the Source. I’m going to have to override it.”

Almost as if in response, the Void started to grow exponentially. “I think we have another problem.”

She cursed under her breath. “Have I mentioned that I _really_ don’t like Forerunner AIs?” She looked up at John while her fingers continued to move rapidly over the panel. “The Void can’t be stopped until the crystal is placed in it. If I can’t contain the Void, you need to leave. I’ll make sure the Source will get destroyed.”

It would mean sacrificing the life she had just been given, but it was the only option available. 

“You would die,” John said bluntly.

She didn’t respond. She had already died once, she didn’t like to think about doing it again. 

“I’m not going anywhere.” His voice was as determined as she had ever heard it.

She relaxed, despite the danger they were in. Of all the Spartans, she was glad that she chose the one that was the most stubborn. “Somehow I knew you were going to say that.”

The blackness grew and pushed against the thick alloy, causing it to crack. A loud hiss followed by a series of pops came from the chamber. The casing creaked under the enormous pressure of the Void.

They were running out of time.

Finally, Cortana located the hostile code and began to delete the file. She glanced at John. “Get ready on my mark.”

Smoke escaped from the console as the chamber attempted to relieve some pressure. She slammed her hand down on the holographic button. “Now!”

He shoved the crystal in the hatch and closed the lid shut. The lights flickered several times before they were completely extinguished. Less than a second later, Cortana saw the lights from John’s helmet turn on.

She watched as the crystal travelled through the narrow passage that led to the Void. The crystal expanded and retracted. It morphed into a variety of shapes and colors. As it reached the fray of the Void, the darkness seemed to fold in on itself it attempt to consume the crystal. Moments later, the Void had devoured the crystal entirely. 

The ground shook and the casing around the chamber cracked. Cortana held onto the control panel to keep her footing. The implosion rattled the control console. Sparks flew from the display. 

Then, suddenly, the Void was gone.

Seconds later, the lights returned back to their normal state. The readings from the panels showed that the crystal had been destroyed. 

“We did it.” There was a smile in her voice. “I’m uploading a memory-wiping worm to purge to Schism’s control systems. Some well-placed grenades should take care of the machinery.”

Her smile faltered when she looked out the window and saw the Librarian who was still gripping the Didact’s body. “It never gets easier. Death, I mean.”

“No. It doesn’t.”

He led them out of the Inner Chamber to where the Librarian was. “You did well, Reclaimers.” She sounded tired. “Thank you. Both of you. You have allowed time to remain as it should.” She glanced down at the Didact’s body. 

Cortana looked at the still body. “I never told him thank you,” she whispered.

“I am certain that he would tell you that no thanks is required because he was doing the Mantle’s work. He wouldn’t want you to live in regret. You should go and meet your people. They are coming,” the Librarian said.

She was right; Cortana detected several dozen human life signs in the control center. They must have been waiting for the shield to collapse which faltered after the death of the Didact. 

A nervous feeling reintroduced itself. She didn’t know where she fit in with the UNSC any longer. Was she to be considered a civilian? A soldier?

“Come on, Chief. I can’t wait to submit the after-action report for this mission.” She moved away from the Forerunners.

As they started to leave, she thought she heard the Librarian start to weep softly.

She and John exchanged few words during their trek back to the surface. So much had happened since she had been reborn and there was so much she had yet to experience. Despite her vast knowledge and intellect, she felt overwhelmed.

They rode up the gravlift. As they approached the top, she heard numerous footsteps. “The calvary has arrived.”

When the lift stopped a man --Chief Thomas Lasky, she recognized-- and a group of Spartans were waiting for them. “You didn’t think to tell me about them?” she asked John via a private comm.

“I thought you would have accessed the _Infinity_ ’s records,” he replied.

“Been kind of busy saving the universe,” she retorted. 

“Chief,” Lasky greeted before taking in the sight of Cortana. He looked her up and down. “This isn’t the Librarian. You found another Foreruuner?”

“No.” John hesitated. He glanced at her before straightening. “This is Cortana.”

Lasky ogled her for a full ten seconds before looking heavenwards, but he didn’t say anything about her. “And the crystal?”

“The crystal has been destroyed, the Schism has been taken offline. The machine needs to be dismantled,” John replied.

“I’ve got a couple of Spartans that have been itching to blow something up. Eli, Jennifer, get down there and blow the hell out of that machine,” Lasky ordered.

Two Spartans stepped forward. “Yes, sir!”

“What about the Didact?” Lasky asked.

“He was killed by the Delegate while Cortana and I were disposing of the crystal. The Librarian is with the body right now,” reported John. 

“Miller, get to her position and see if she need anything to tend the body.” He let out an exasperated sigh as he looked back at John and Cortana. “Come on, you two.” He cast another disbelieving look at Cortana. “I can’t wait to see Buck’s reaction to you, ma’am.”

The ride back to the _Infinity_ was tense. Lasky and the half dozen Spartans with him kept casting suspicious glances at her. John had remained silent, probably building his case for why she should be allowed onboard as a passenger. Cortana did as she always did when she had no objective to complete: she read through any data she could access.

As they made their way to the ship, she read through the _Infinity_ ’s reports. Though she could only access data at a fraction of the speed she had been able to when she was an AI, she was still able to read through enough reports to get a clear picture of what had happened since she and the Chief had lost contact with Earth. 

By the time they were halfway back to the ship, she had determined the major divergences between this timeline and the one she and John were from. When she saw the file with information about the other Cortana, she made the uncharacteristic decision not to access the data; part of her didn’t want to know what had happened to the Cortana from the altered timeline.

Lasky finally spoke, breaking the silence. He looked at her, studying her face. “The Chief says the Didact restored all of your data and transferred it to this new body. It is his belief that you are Cortana.”

She raised an eyebrow as she fidgeted with her helmet in her hands. She had taken it off as soon as they had stepped onto the Pelican. “That’s because I am Cortana, Thomas. The algorithm in Requiem’s systems were able to repair most of the damage to the data that was stored in my matrices. Then, the machine he created was able to convert the data processes into human thought.”

“So you remember _everything_?”

She smirked, despite the tension in the cabin. She suspected she knew what the Petty Officer was hinting at. “If you are referring to a poorly thought out bet that you made with Sergeant Johnson on the Cairo platform, yes.” She lowered her voice. “But don’t worry, I won’t tell any of the crew.”

Redness stained his cheeks as he looked away from her. “Well, that settles it for me. You really are Cortana.”

When the _Infinity_ came into view, Cortana leaned towards the window. It was so enormous. The damage it had taken had been significant; Cortana could see exposed floors even from this distance. Still, there was no denying that it was an impressive vessel. As the transport moved forward, she saw a company of soldiers, including Commander Buck, standing at the foot of a loading ramp.

She looked away and faced John who seemed to be watching her from behind his helmet. “Now would be the time for some encouragement,” she said to John through their private comm.

“Everything is going to be fine.” Then, he did the most peculiar thing. He patted her forearm stiffly. If it hadn’t been so blatantly clear how awkward he felt doing it, the gesture would have provided Cortana with a bit of comfort.

Minutes later, the transport stopped. Lasky stood up and waited for Cortana and John to move to their feet. “Let’s get this over with,” he muttered.

Cortana couldn’t have said it better herself.

The rear hatch opened. Commander Buck stood on the ground with a scowl on his face.

So much for a warm welcome.

He barely waited for them to stop walking before speaking. “Which one of you want to tell me what the hell is going on here?”

“We will, sir,” John said, speaking for himself and Cortana.

It took the better part of twenty minutes for her and John to outline everything that had happened since her original program had terminated. When they had finally finished, the Commander ran his hand through his hair. “So, what am I supposed to do with you? You certainly aren’t an UNSC AI anymore and I don’t have the authority to make you an official officer.”

Cortana opened her mouth to reply, but it was Lasky that spoke first. “I believe, sir, that allowing her to come onboard would be permitted via the Expansion Initiative.”

Cortana quickly accessed the ship’s systems to learn about the new regulation. The Expansion Initiative was a protocol established by High Command before the _Infinity_ left Earth in 2553. It said that any non-hostile lifeform could petition for safe passage on the vessel. It was that very Initiative that Lord Hood used to authorize the Librarian to become part of the _Infinity_ crew.

Buck blew out a breath of air. “I don’t think High Command was thinking something like this would happen, Lasky.” 

The young man shrugged. “That’s not your problem, sir.”

Buck looked at Cortana briefly then nodded. “All right, we’ll go with Lasky’s idea. Provided you pass the medical and psych tests, you’re now part of the crew. As a civilian. Though,” he said, giving her a pointed look, “I doubt I’d be able to keep you out of the ship’s systems.”

“I’ll be on my best behavior, sir,” she promised. 

Buck stepped forward, extending his hand. “Welcome aboard the _Infinity_ , Cortana.”

011000100110010101100111011010010110111001101110011010010110111001100111

2247 hours, March 4, 2558  
Requiem Shield World  
Forerunner Installation SW-0043

John held up a fist.

His team stopped behind him noiselessly.

After being officially assigned to be part of the _Infinity_ crew, John had been given the responsibility of running the Alpha Commando Task Force Team. He and Lieutenant Commander O’Day, _Infinity_ ’s Chief of Security, had worked together to form the best team for the Spartan to have. It had taken nearly two weeks before the Spartan had been satisfied with the group of soldiers commissioned to elite force.

Thomas Lasky had been the easiest choice. The middle-aged man had combat experience and a healthy dose of common sense and determination. After Chief Mendez’s injuries had been tended to, Lasky had relinquished command over the Spartan IVs and joined the team. 

Thet ‘Reftam was the only member of the team that was not human. The former Elite had been aboard the _Shadow of Intent_ when the Flood had attacked Earth and had travelled through the Portal to fight the on the Ark. The Sangheili had personally requested permission to be a part of the exclusive team. When John had reviewed his record, which included a recommendation from the Arbiter, he had agreed to ‘Reftam’s request.

The final two members of his team were both Spartan IVs: Miller, the young man John had first met when he came aboard the _Infinity_ , and Sandra, a young woman who had quickly impressed John with her observation skills and speed. Both Spartans were adept at every form of fighting, their augmentation allowed for their bodies to have superhuman strength similar to that of John.

Tensions between Lasky and ‘Reftam had been high when they first met. John knew that Lasky had never forgiven the Covenant for what they had done to X--and would be unlikely to ever do so. Despite his officers’ history, John needed his team to completely trust each other. It had taken several dozen exercise drills and a couple of intense confrontations, but over the past months, there was a sense of continuity amongst his team.

Now, they were working together to help clear out a landing zone for a travelling Pelican to land. 

“Lasky, ‘Reftam,” John said through the team’s comm, “get into position. When Miller gives the signal, be ready. Sandra, you’re with me.”

Less than a second later, four green acknowledge lights winked on. John watched as the former ODST and the Elite melted into the shadows of the cliff face. He nodded to Sandra and they started to make their way through the narrow corridor. 

John knew not to underestimate the enemy, but he was confident in his team’s ability to reach the LZ without incident. Together, he and Sandra moved through the terrain with barely a sound. He scanned the area closely for any signs of the Prometheans, but so far, there were no signs of the hulking warriors.

When they were halfway to their objective, a single green acknowledgment light blinked.

Miller was ready.

John resisted the urge to move faster. Miller would be well-hidden until everyone got to their positions.

Just as they approached the final ascent, Lasky said, “We’ve got a bit of a problem, Chief. There are double the patrols than we were expecting. And they’ve got some friends in the sky.”

John frowned briefly. The addition of more Knights and Sentinels would make an already difficult situation more complicated. 

“‘Reftam and I will deal with the hostiles on the ground. You and Sandra take the Sentinels,” John ordered. “Miller, be ready. The transport will be here in ten minutes. If they haven’t lost their tail, you will need to deal with it.”

“Got it, Chief.”

John peered around the rock face to get a look at the clearing ahead of them. There were eight Knights standing guard and over a dozen Aggressor Sentinels buzzing overhead. Across the open field, tucked behind the large trees, Lasky and ‘Reftam were hiding in the shadows. To the east, on a plateau a half-mile away, Miller was waiting.

It was time to complete their objective.

John plucked a plasma grenade from his armor and clinched it in his hand. Sandra readied her scattershot, looking ahead. 

Then, John gave the go ahead signal. Sandra ran ahead as ‘Reftam and Lasky emerged from their spot. John hurled the grenade towards the Knights, satisfied when it landed squarely on one of the Promethean’s chest. When it exploded, he reached back and grabbed his scattershot, plowing forward.

Lasky and Sandra were making quick work of the Sentinels. John dodged the falling debris as he took aim at a Knight. He fired one shot, then another. The Knight staggered backwards, but held tight to his own weapon. The persistent Promethean raised his rifle, but before he could pull the trigger, John fired one last lethal shot.

The Knight collapsed to the ground. 

John turned around and faced the next Knight that was taking aim at Lasky when the Pelican made contact with him and his team. “This is Delta 151. I’m going to need a little help losing this tailgater if you guys aren’t too busy.”

Cortana.

John’s brow furrowed. She wasn’t supposed to be piloting that transport.

He dodged a shot from the Knight then opened a comm channel. “Miller, are you ready?”

“Don’t worry, sir, she’ll get to the LZ in one piece.”

John didn’t reply; a barrage of bullets hit him from behind. His shield levels dropped precariously low as he spun to find his attacker. Before he could take aim at the Knight who attacked him, the Promethean slumped forward, molten bursts of plasma still glowing on his back from where he had been shot. Behind the Knight, ‘Reftam stood, plasma rifle in hand.

John nodded his thanks as his shields’ power levels returned back to normal. He scanned the battlefield. Nearly all of the Sentinels had fallen from the sky; only three Knights remained standing. 

They were doing as well as John expected.

When the last of the Sentinels had fallen, John and Sandra worked together to take down another Knight as Lasky and ‘Reftam teamed up to attack another. The pairs made quick work of the Knights, leaving one single Promethean in the middle of the quartet.

Before John or the others moved towards the Knight, an explosion sounded from the east. Miller’s voice cut across the team’s channel. “I’ve got some hostiles coming on my six. I’m going to need some help if that Pelican is going to lose that tail.”

John looked at Sandra. Even hidden behind her mask, John knew she was eager to help Miller. John nodded. “Go.”

“I’m on my way, Miller,” she said over the team’s comm as she started to sprint ahead. “Don’t think I’m going to let you live this down.”

Lasky raised an eyebrow at John. “Spunky, isn’t she?”

John silently agreed. The Spartan IVs had their personality quirks. All of them were professional when on the battlefield, but they had been embedded with a civilian mindset that allowed them to be more well-rounded than the impassive Spartan-IIs. 

As Sandra disappeared behind the trees, John looked forward. The three men stood with their weapons aimed at the remaining Knight. “Your people are an abomination, an atrocity of your ancestors,” he taunted.

John refused to respond to the jeer. “Call off the attack on the transport,” he demanded.

The Knight shook his head. “Never. I do not fear you, Warrior. The Intellect will die as she should have months ago.”

John tensed. His finger itched to pull the trigger, but he would allow for the Knight’s surrender, if the Promethean chose to give in.

The Knight’s helmet peeled back. The flames from his skull brightened the darkened sky. “I would rather _die_ than concede defeat.”

“That can be arranged,” rumbled ‘Reftam. Then, before John took the shot, he pulled out his light sword and slashed it across the Knight’s throat. The head dropped to the ground as the Promethean’s body fell forward.

“You should know by now their kind don’t negotiate,” ‘Reftam said disapprovingly.

“And you should know by now that our kind is always willing to give the enemy a chance to admit they’ve been a bunch of idiots and come crawling to us for help. That’s what happened with the Arbiter, right?” Lasky shot back.

“Your ignorance--”

“Not now,” John said, putting up a hand. Then, he opened a comm channel. “Blue Four, Blue Five, what’s your status?”

Neither answered.

John listened for the sound of a firefight in the distance, but heard nothing. He opened another comm channel. “Delta 151, please respond.”

“I’m here, Chief.” Cortana’s voice was calm, he noted.

“What’s your status?”

“Impressed.” He heard the smile in her voice. “I’m watching two members of your team working to hijack an attack runner. In midair.” She paused for a half-second. “How come _you_ never did that?”

Lasky snickered. Even ‘Reftam seemed amused by Cortana’s inquiry. 

Yeah, John thought. She was fine.

Another half minute passed, then Sandra spoke. “Blue Four here. We’ve got ourselves an attack runner, Chief.”

“Good work,” he said sincerely.

It took another three minutes for the two aircrafts to come into view. John watched as the transports landed in the middle of the clearing. Miller and Sandra emerged from the attack runner first. Then, Cortana stepped out from the Pelican’s blood tray.

She was bundled up in a parka, her face peeking from the furry hood. In her hand, there was a tablet. She walked around the fallen Knights, her eyebrow raised. “No one can accuse you and your team of not taking your training exercises seriously. It’s a good thing these drones are easily replaceable.”

“The talking program was new,” noted Lasky.

Cortana shrugged. “The commander thought you guys were ready for a more life-like scenario. And what’s more realistic than a backtalking hostile?” She looked at John, studying his armor. “How did the live rounds work out?”

“Fine.”

A faint amused smile touched her lips. “I didn’t expect anything less. You are the Alpha Commando Team for a reason.” She looked at the others. “The _Infinity_ is almost ready for take-off. Buck wants all personnel back on board ASAP.”

It had taken just over six months and thousands of man hours, but the crew had finally been able to restore the Infinity to working condition. They would continue their mission of space exploration, locating and studying new Forerunner planets and installations.

“We’ll take the attack runner back to the _Infinity_. I’m sure Miller and Sandra want to show off their prize to all the other Spartans,” offered Lasky. “The two of you can bring back the Pelican if that’s alright with you, Chief.”

John suspected that the seasoned officer was trying to give him and Cortana a few minutes away from inquisitive eyes. Since their arrival on the _Infinity_ , the crew had taken an unhealthy fascination in the Spartan and former AI that had saved the universe.

He nodded and looked at his team. They weren’t like the Blue Team made of Spartan IIs, but John had confidence that like his former team, the five of them would be able to accomplish great things. 

“Come on,” Lasky said. “I can’t wait to drive this thing back.”

“ _I_ have more piloting experience,” ‘Reftam countered as they started walking to the craft.

“Hey! We were the ones that got it in the first place,” Miller replied.

Their voices faded when they entered the ship.

Cortana raised her eyebrows. “Quite a team you’ve got there.” There was a wistfulness to her voice.

The two of them had been unable to work together since she had come aboard the _Infinity_ because she was classified as a civilian personnel. Until High Command officially changed her status to that of an UNSC officer, there would be no chance that she could accompany him during his missions.

Even then, it wasn’t certain if they would be assigned to the same unit.

“Cortana...”

He didn’t get a chance finish his sentence because she suddenly held out the tablet that she was holding. “I thought you should read this.”

John knew whatever was on the tablet was important. Entering a training exercise with live rounds was reckless, even for Cortana. She took a step towards him. She always stood _that_ much closer to him than anyone else. An attempt to try to get in that head of his again, she had once confessed.

He took the tablet from her and read the information on the screen. 

“You heard from Lord Hood.”

She nodded. “It took them long enough to make a decision.” She pulled out a set of dog tags from under her jacket. “He convinced High Command to not only recognize me as a valid member of the UNSC, but to also attribute the work I did as an AI to my service record. With that, I have been given an official rank. You’re looking at Lieutenant Cortana Halsey.”

“You kept the name,” he noted, surprised.

“I’m not ashamed of my background,” she replied confidently. “If Admiral Hood could convince High Command to look past the fact that I am an AI-turned-human, what’s a last name that’s tied to the most despised-yet-respected doctor in the fleet?”

“But,” she said, tapping the screen twice, “that’s not all. I’ve also been given my own three-man team: Data Infiltration Team Alpha. Officially, we’re going to study Forerunner technology. Unofficially, our job is going to be hacking into the Forerunner systems and using it to our advantage. Because we’ll be going planetside so often, as head of the team, I’m going to have to coordinate with the leader of the Alpha Commando Task Force on a consistent basis.”

That was his team.

“Seems like you’re not getting rid of me yet,” she said mischievously.

AI or human, there was no one on the _Infinity_ whose skills and intelligence John trusted more. He felt a faint smile tug on his lips.

“Well...good.”

A faint blush dusted her cheeks. “Come on, John,” she said, walking back to the Pelican. “We’d better get back to the ship before Commander Buck starts asking questions. Again.” She sat in the pilot’s seat. John stood behind her. “You know, for someone who is in charge of sixteen thousand people, you’d think he’d have better things to do than fuel the rumor mill.”

“People are always going to talk,” he said from experience. There was no ship or planet that he had ever gone to where he or the other Spartans hadn’t attracted attention. 

She didn’t say anything as she continued to navigate through Requiem’s skies. They flew through the snow dusted hills, passing the now fully-functional Station they had first gone to when they had crashed on the planet. 

A tiny colony had been established in the Forerunner structure in the weeks since the Schism’s destruction. Several hundred ONI officers had volunteered to stay on the planet to study the Forerunner technology. The Librarian had offered to oversee and assist them as they learned about the history of the universe.

Soon, the _Infinity_ came into view. The repaired ship stood proudly at the base of the control center. He watched as the final cargo was being loaded into the ship. As the last of the Marines walked up the ramp, he glanced at Cortana. “It’s finished.”

The Pelican turned backwards as it finished its landing sequence and settled on the floor of the cargo bay. She stood up, walking to the back of the transport. John followed. Her hand brushed against his as they started making their way down the ramp. “Actually, John, I think we’re just getting started.”


End file.
